Bach - Fugue #10

A "short-attention span" version of Bach's Fugue #10 (in e minor). Performed by Todd Allen Gates.

My three YouTube channels:

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates - my musician channel

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (a dialogue between a Christian proselytizer and a Socratic skeptic)

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (such as "Why do we have to work?" and "Why do we have to use money?" and "How should we define 'success'?")

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bach
• Fugue
• 10
• minor
• piano
• ToddGates
• ToddAllenGates
• Well
• Tempered
• Clavier
• ToddAllenGates2

[parquar]

Shortened, yes, but why did you change the last chord?

[ToddGates]

@parquar

> why did you change the last chord?

Schirmer's edition actually ends it on a minor chord: apparently Schirmer feels that the major chord ending for a minor piece seems "forced" or artificial. I didn't learn until years after I had already learned the piece that Schirmer took it upon themselves to edit Bach's work ... and by then, the minor ending seemed natural to me. Ending with a major chord--even though that's the way Bach wrote it--seems to come out of nowhere.

[PapaRoachGirl18]

this is impressive! i play Bach's Little Fugue in G minor on my violin...it's my favorite piece.

[ToddGates]

@PapaRoachGirl18

> this is impressive!

Thank you.

> i play Bach's Little Fugue in G minor on my violin...it's my favorite piece.

Playing a fugue on a violin sounds difficult!

[salamence47]

Is that fugue comes from the WTC (Well-tempered Clavier)???

By the way...great performance!!

Good Job!!!

[ToddGates]

> Is that fugue comes from the WTC (Well-tempered Clavier)??? By the way...great performance!!

Yes, it's from the WTC, and thanks!

[parquar]

@ToddAllenGates I haven't even gone through music theory since that's not what I'm studying now in college, but I spend at least an hour most days listening to Bach so I have a real intuitive understanding of a lot of it / am used to it in addition to what I looked up. A lot of it could be arbitrary but there is surely merit to most of his types of harmonies because of what possibilities they allow for variations. I love the highly chromatic yet creatively (rather than loosely) structured music.

[ToddAllenGates]

2 of 2:

>[The Picardy third] is definitely something to get used to, and it has to be applied tastefully, but there is logic behind it.

Agreed—but because I played this fugue for years before studying theory or music history or knowing that Schirmer had edited Bach, the minor ending became what sounded "right" to my unsophisticated ears.

(This is ToddGates, BTW, writing from my ToddAllenGates channel.)

[ToddAllenGates]

@parquar

1 of 2:

> in the case of using a dominant 7th that you should usually go to major unless you are going to continue in the music. If using minor such as in the middle of a piece or ending of a non-final movement, usually it is better to leave out the 7th or make it less pronounced in the voicing.

From a music theory point of view, that makes sense—although I confess to abandoning that type of thought once I left college! (I was a music major at Queens College.)

[parquar]

@ToddGates I believe that especially in the case of using a dominant 7th that you should usually go to major unless you are going to continue in the music. If using minor such as in the middle of a piece or ending of a non-final movement, usually it is better to leave out the 7th or make it less pronounced in the voicing. I used to not like picardy thirds, but then at the same time most of the whole WTC was far beyond my ear's understanding. Within that framework, Bach uses it well.

[parquar]

@ToddGates Using the minor as a tonic is forced and artificial in the first place, yet that is where some of the greatest ideas in music work out of. Excitement in music is all about artificialities (temporary tonics, secondary dominants, etc), and ending in the major chord is going back to the pure tonic rather than the artificial minor tonic because the cadence is stronger that way. It is definitely something to get used to, and it has to be applied tastefully, but there is logic behind it.

[ToddAllenGates]

@rodriguezia

> I think it lacks a peace.

If you mean I cut out half of it, yes, guilty as charged. That's why the Description Box describes this as the "short attention span" version.

[rodriguezia]

I think it lacks a peace.

[PapaRoachGirl18]

@ToddGates it is rather difficult, but once i learned it, it's a ton of fun to play!!!