This is the fourth bonus episode.

 

Two episodes ago, I began with a quote from Aldous Huxley. That quote came from an article written in 1985. The article focused on Bach's relationship to words and various writer's relationships with Bach. The whole article is fascinating and, well, I read it to you. 

 

A piece of what I consider 'good scholarship', it takes stabs at what Bach playing would be like today, in 2020, but sets the standard for the next episode, in which we will be de-bunking poor Bach scholarship.

 

Here is the link to the article:

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/24/books/bach-at-300-words-notes-and-numbers.html

 

And here is the link to the obituary of the James A. Winn, who wrote it (d.2019)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2019/03/27/james-winn-writer-english-professor-and-flautist/ZFGI9AJa9pvRcU13TyuOmJ/story.html

 

Follow me on instagram: Each day I am posting the cello complete suites on a portable clavichord: @wtfbach

 

As always, thanks for listening,

 

-evan

Get full access to W.T.F. Bach? at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe

This is the third bonus episode.

 

You know how at the end of every episode, Gaby says, "Want to have evan analyze a specific piece of Bach... just for you?"

 

Boom: Listener's choice volume one.

 

Three pieces you requested were:

Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV855 (Book one)

Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV849 (Book one)

Capriccio on the Departure of the Beloved Brother, BWV992

 

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Forgive my delay in getting this to all of you: I have a noble undertaking regarding a popular Bach book which is doing nothing but leading you further from the truth about the master! But have no fear, in a few weeks I will unleash an attack and clear up this confusion: meanwhile please enjoy my brief analysis of these three pieces which, in their own right, could take up many episodes each.

 

Also: Lament Aria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lament_bass

 

Follow me on IG! Right now I am instagramming inner movements of the cello suites on a portable clavichord: @wtfbach

 

As always, thanks for listening,

-evan

Get full access to W.T.F. Bach? at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe

Rather than moving on to the compound fugues, we have a pleasant visit to the second of four canons from "The Art of Fugue" by J.S. Bach:

Canon alla Decima in contrapunto alla Terza (Canon at the Tenth in counterpoint at the Third)

Topics covered: Aldous Huxley said that Bach is a manifestation of God? How does this second canon differ from the previous canon? What is a 'Cadenza'? So, you can play a canon with a delay pedal, but to what extent? 

Check out a picture of Bach's 'gift canon' here: 

NEXT EPISODE IS LISTENER'S CHOICE: DM EVAN WHAT PIECES YOU WANT TO HEAR

Find a playlist of the music here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Ha250UDFktGqZjpt1hk7L?si=fIqZwtTUQJmzB9SYwskeYA

Follow Evan on Instagram for even more content about Bach: www.instagram.com/WTFBach

Support us:

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This is the last fugue of what we could call 'Chapter two' in The Art of Fugue: this is the third and final 'stretto fugue,' and the most complicated. Whereas in the previous episodes I mentioned in which direction subjects enter, inverted or not, or at which beat they overlap, in this episode, I disregard all of that in favor of trying to hear the three different speeds in multiple voices at once. I also ask the listener to imagine what this could sound like before the music is played. This is related to a technique called 'Audiation' which eventually will deserve special mention.

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Find a playlist of the music here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Ha250UDFktGqZjpt1hk7L?si=fIqZwtTUQJmzB9SYwskeYA

The Art of Fugue arranged for Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUnOx6hfBE

Follow Evan on Instagram for even more content about Bach: www.instagram.com/WTFBach

Support us:

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Suggestions? Want Evan to analyze a specific piece of Bach? Have other questions for Evan about music or anything at all?

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Guest Interview: Robert Hill, Harpsichordist

I had the privilege of speaking to Robert Hill, one of the foremost harpsichordists alive. Our discussion spans many different topics including harpsichord tuning and repair, clavichords, piano actions, lute-harpsichords, early Bach, old Bach, figured bass, inaudible sounds, metronomes, partimento, and anything else listed here:

People / Topics Covered:

Keith Hill (Instrument maker, Robert’s Brother)

Jaap Schröder (Dutch violinist Hill heard in Michigan)

Fernando Valenti (American Harpsichordist)

Charles Burney (English Music Historian)

Lute Harpsichord: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lautenwerck

Gustav Leonhardt 

John Dryden (the poet Leonhardt Quoted)

The Goethe Haus, Weimar (paint color)

Andreas Bach Book (french text only) https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Bach_Buch

Andreas Staier Harpsichordist with whom Hill recorded BWV1080

David Stanwood https://www.stanwoodpiano.com/ (Piano Technician)

The Squiggle on the title page of the Well Tempered Clavier

"Bach's face reconstructed"

"Bach's Seal"

Partimento (Reduction Technique): 

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Randy Rainbow (comedian) 

Madame de Villedieu (authoress), novel of note: "Desordres d'Amour

 

Follow Evan on Instagram for even more content about Bach: www.instagram.com/WTFBach

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Find a playlist of this episode’s music here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1xyzZShf0RrAx75nvF1zUb?si=xRgHdqtNRtmogsUfvhlf7Q

 

Support us:

 

https://www.patreon.com/wtfbach

 

https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach

 

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--

 

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The second ‘stretto’ fugue: “Contrapunctus 6, in the French Style” now gives us the theme flying at two different speeds in both directions. We see the theme overlapped, coming both inverted and ‘rectus’, and now at 1x AND 2x speeds! Where will Bach go from here?!

Topics covered: What does it mean to play in the ‘French style?’ What does ‘diminution’ mean?

Pianists mentioned: Zoltán Kocsis, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Pierre-Laurent Aimard,

Harpsichordists (organists) mentioned: Helmut Walcha, Davitt Moroney, Robert Hill, Gustav Leonhardt, Isolde Ahlgrimm,

 

Follow Evan on Instagram for even more content about Bach: www.instagram.com/WTFBach

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Find a playlist of the music here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Ha250UDFktGqZjpt1hk7L?si=fIqZwtTUQJmzB9SYwskeYA

 

Support us:

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--

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Here we are on a new chapter! The stretto fugues have begun. We uncover the extensive use of stretto at various 'lengths:' 12 beats, 6 beats, 4 beats, 2 beats even down to a single beat. Entrances are now flying both upside down and right-side up without warning. 

Topics covered: Bach's cousin taught a 12-year old prince about fugues? 'Fleshing out' our Art of Fugue theme, Canons within fugues, The Art of Fugue orchestrated 

E.H. Gombrich's 'Little History of the World' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Little_History_of_the_World

The Art of Fugue arranged for Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUnOx6hfBE

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Find a playlist of the music here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Ha250UDFktGqZjpt1hk7L?si=fIqZwtTUQJmzB9SYwskeYA

Follow Evan on Instagram for even more content about Bach: www.instagram.com/WTFBach

Support us:

https://www.patreon.com/wtfbach

https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach

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https://cash.app/$wtfbach

 

Suggestions? Want Evan to analyze a specific piece of Bach? Have other questions for Evan about music or anything at all?

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This is an interview with pianist/composer/arranger Brad Mehldau. Our conversation on May 12, 2020 spanned many diverse topics from what he is reading at the moment, what he keeps on his piano, when and how he practices, the connection between bebop and Bach, his favorite video game and more.

Bach's Table of Ornaments: http://www.pennuto.com/music/jsb_ornm.htm

Hear the music mentioned (in the order we mention it) here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5iP9EMbyCBoB6hEyK5waK4?si=ukZQ0wy2T62vjGImM_Okfw

Read the literature from our discussion here:

Book of Jeremiah: (New American Bible translation) http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PPE.HTM

The Upanishads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads

Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Faustus_(novel)

Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_to_a_Young_Poet

George Bernard Shaw music criticism: https://www.abebooks.com/Shaws-Music-Complete-Musical-Criticism-Bernard/30253564275/bd

Brad's favorite video game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millipede_(video_game)

Musicians/Bands mentioned (Alphabetically):

Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Jon Brion, Wendy Carlos, Chopin, John Coltrane, Critters Buggin', Nick Drake, Fauré, Gershwin, Glenn Gould, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Haydn, Fred Hersch, Wynton Kelly, Jacques Loussier, Jerome Lowenthal, Lightning Bolt, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Willie Nelson, Phineas Newborn, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Charlie Parker, Murray Perahia, Oscar Peterson, András Schiff, Schubert, Schumann, Wayne Shorter, Nina Simone, Art Tatum, Tom Waits, Ween. 

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Follow Evan on Instagram for interactive content: www.instagram.com/WTFBach

Support us:

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Rather than moving on to the fifth fugue, we have a brief visit to the first of four canons from "The Art of Fugue" by J.S. Bach:

Canon in Hypodiapason (Canon at the octave). 

Topics covered: What is an octave? Who is 'The Great One'? Why do musicians love Bach so? So... you can play a canon with a delay pedal?  

Find a playlist of the music here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Ha250UDFktGqZjpt1hk7L?si=fIqZwtTUQJmzB9SYwskeYA

Follow Evan on Instagram for even more content about Bach: www.instagram.com/WTFBach

Support us:

https://www.patreon.com/wtfbach

https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach

https://venmo.com/wtfbach

https://cash.app/$wtfbach

 

Suggestions? Want Evan to analyze a specific piece of Bach? Have other questions for Evan about music or anything at all?

Write us:

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This is the second bonus episode.

In it, you will hear the first three fugues from “The Art of Fugue” in their 'early versions', meaning, the versions which Bach conceived before he sent them to be published. This is a rare moment to observe Bach making improvements or corrections on his own compositions. Noticing how Bach revises his own work is a pretty rare and- may I say?- exclusive look into the mind of the great genius. 

The 'Original Print', as I said, is found here: https://imslp.simssa.ca/files/imglnks/usimg/2/21/IMSLP23444-PMLP05843-Bach_Art_of_Fugue_1st_edition.pdf (DOWNLOAD IT! look at page 17 and 20, and 30! 30 has 'Bach's seal'... another podcast is in oder)

An important topic covered is the 'source tradition' of The Art of Fugue, and how the two principle sources differ. We also discuss what an autograph is, and what it means to have a composition 'published' in Bach's day.

I play the first three fugues in the original versions, expose the slight variants, and dissect these slight variants and how they came to become the printed version. 

I have not yet promoted this, but I will in my next 'regular' episode: 

I 'instagramed' the entire art of fugue, and wrote in the 'stories' important facts: just google: Art of Fugue Instagram -- obviously I am the only one. This could help ye who are zealous with visuals to get inside this great work. 

Therefore, follow me on IG!: @wtfbach

-evan

 

 

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