What music are you working on?

Anthony Miyake Hi Anthony, I'd love to compare notes with you on these pieces. Starting with the C# Minor, I have worked on this one for many months. It presents many challenges. In learning the piece I found myself reaching for the pedal constantly, mainly to achieve legato where I felt I had to let go of certain notes before the end of their duration.  But I try to remain mindful of Andras Schiff's admonition: "Legato should be achieved by the hands, not by the feet"  [he said something like that in his liner notes to the WTC]. so some times I consciously hold my foot in back of me, especially when practicing, to see whether I can get through it without it. There are some fugues where I think it is impossible to hold onto all the notes for their duration, but in this one I think it is possible although with some straining.  I've been afraid to use much pedal in this piece, because its texture is so dense; it's a 5 voice, triple fugue, and sometimes it seems like he's got all three subjects in stretto all at the same time.!

But you are using it for dynamics; that is very interesting.  where are the places where you find that it helps you (what measure numbers?). I would like to explore that.  I have seen your practice log videos and it is evident you are putting a lot of thought into the pieces and I am very impressed with your approach.

Now the D major prelude is another story completely. a very light texture. and many pianists play it blindingly fast, which I don't think is necessary.  but the tempo needs to be a little quick to hear the patterns.  I think that this prelude, like almost all of the WTC Preludes, is Bach's illustration of of various improvisational techniques - a perfect illustration, mind you, but an illustration nonetheless, meaning it represents one of many outcomes he might have improvised over that same pattern of chords and voicings. 

One of the amazing things about the WTC that becomes more evident as I study it is how many objectives Bach accomplishes at once.  One of his principal objectives (as he stated on its title page) was instruction to students, and I think this piece is instructive of some of the various partimento devices that were available to improvisers.  I am just starting to learn about partimento through Dr. Remes' and John Mortenson's Tone Base lessons, and I highly recommend them if you haven't explored them yet.  To understand the patterns I think it is helpful to play the chords of each measure first. in other words, figure out the chords and then play the piece all the way through with just the chords.  This then impresses the structure of the piece into your ears and helps you sort out the essence from the decoration.

I fear that I am going on too long here. I will pull out my score and try to give you some specific examples of what I am talking about next time. I would be interested in hearing what you think of these thoughts, and any other thoughts you may have in conceptualizing these pieces. 

Peter Golemme , yes for the C#-minor Fugue #4 a smooth legato is just one of the challenges.  The other is playing the voices such that the sound sustains for the length each note needs to "sing." So I've found I have a tendency to pound out the piece without pedal. But if I use the pedal I can play even piano and the pedal will help the note sustain for the needed length.  So the pedal helps with playing with greater dynamics.  I think here as well, the pianists skills play a factor, but also the instrument the piece is being played on.  Playing on a grand piano with the top open will also help to some degree vs playing on an upright with the lid closed in terms of notes sustaining their sound.  And the pianists skills matter a lot as well.  If you listen to Schiff's recording, he plays the entire piece rather softly but has a range of dynamics; Gould's (his earlier recording) is played more consistently forte.  I think it's more challenging to play the piece softly, especially if not using the pedal, but what I like about Gould's recording is that the voices are played rather distinctly, some more staccato and others more legato, so it sounds like 5 distinct singers singing and expressing their individual styles.

For the Prelude #5 in D-major, I've been trying to do a chord analysis, but I've only been able to figure out the first 2 measures for myself.  The first measure is clearly a D major chord, then the second measure starts in an E major chord then modulates to a A7/C#?  So then I searched online, but was only able to find one analysis of this piece.  It says, "from bar 3 it moves to the dominant and then confirms it with a perfect cadence in bar 6."  But dominant for the key of D would be A which I have a hard time seeing in measure 3 and I have no idea what a "perfect cadence" means for measure 6.  So the analysis I found online just confused me more.  But one thing that became clearer to me was that there's a lot of modulation in the piece through different chord progressions.  So it seems more like a written down free-form improvisation.  It's getting easier for me to play as my right hand is starting to gain some muscle memory, but it still feels like I'm singing a song in some foreign language and have no idea what I'm singing although I love the sound of it.

Anthony Miyake 

Peter Golemme I'm on this type of project, too. I'd learned a handful of Preludes and Fugues from both books of WTC in the past, but about a year ago I decided to start at the beginning. The plan was to do a fairly quick study of each one, as you have done, but when I got to the less familiar ones I got bogged down a bit. I'm up to #13 (just started it). I have found the most difficult to be the slower, more complex fugues - E-flat minor and F minor especially (so far). F minor is similar to B-flat minor in Book 1. 

I just saw a random comment from a random person on YouTube that I thought was interesting: "I love how one finds a certain awkwardness in some of WTC I. Makes JSB seem more human :-) WTC II is much more polished & gallant feeling."

If you can play all the Rachmaninoff preludes, you're way ahead of me technically. 

Peter Golemme hi Anthony, I have done some analysis of the D major prelude, which you may find useful or helpful.

I think of it this way:

First there is an opening flurry in D major, with a I-V-I Harmony. 

Then there is a downward step of the entire D major scale in the bass, ending in bar 13. The steps downward are evident in the bass notes of the intervening measures. Some of the upward notes simply introduce the dominant of the next step downward, and if you trace the steps, it takes you down from D to D.

Then there are a few transitional measures, which serve to get us to the key of B minor at bar 18. Then the bass does a similar downward step to D for the next several measures.

By that point we are at the coda. We have a I-IV progression into the final A ( the dominant) pedal point over which there is a flurry of other harmonies, including D minor (and I notice Bach does the same trick in other preludes, including the F sharp major prelude in book 2 which I’m currently working on – I. E. he goes into the parallel minor at the very end before bringing it back to the final home key). 
 

One thing I am learning from the lessons on Partimento, is that the bass note is the most important note for determining the harmony and the voicing of the notes above it. Instead of just being one of the notes of the chord that happens to be in the bass, which is how i used to tend to think of it, it is the note that drives the choices for the notes above it. Or at least that’s how I understand it at this point. So focusing On the progression of the bass notes, helps to understand the structure of the piece.

PS, this reply was dictated into my iPhone, please forgive me if I missed any typos.

Harriet Kaplan dear Harriet, thank you so much for following up with me. I am wrestling right now with the F minor fugue from the Kwon, and tying myself up into all kinds of contortions trying to finger it correctly. I want to compare notes with you on that. Today I am supposed To be paying attention to my “day job”, and so I had better stop reading my tone base posts for now. But I will follow up and share some of my thoughts on our similar journeys soon.

Peter Golemme sorry I meant to say “Book 1” & Siri translated it as “the Kwon”. 

Peter Golemme Those bass notes are usually equivalent to a continuo bass line. I'm also a cellist, so I'm well aware of there being a distinctive bass line that is often a melody in itself.

Another consistent harmonic pattern in tonal music is that it usually goes briefly into the subdominant (IV or iv) just before the end. Also, if there is a cadence to the relative minor (or major), it is a deceptive cadence (V-vi or V-VI) delaying the inevitable V-I or V-i.

Peter Golemme , thank you for your analysis.  My piano teacher teaches jazz piano so did teach me about the bass notes being the most important for determining the harmony and the voicing of the notes above it.  What that means with this piece then is there are a lot of slash (compound) chords as the bass notes are rarely the root note of the chord played above.  I'm starting to think more and more that the right hand in this piece should sound like a rather free flowing improvisation as opposed to a structured, written piece of music.  The lack of any tempo markings or phrasings for the passages, I think, means one can play it based on their own personal feel, although it should be played "musically" as Andras Schiff would say.  But Bach paid careful attention to detail and I think if he wanted something to be played a certain way, he would have indicated that in the score.

Harriet Kaplan Hi Harriet, just circling back here to say I think your experience as a cello player and your knowledge of harmony is going to be really valuable in your traversal of the WTC. As a cello player you are on the front line of what's driving the development of these pieces.  I'm increasingly learning that I need to look downward to the bass, not upward to the soprano, to understand the structure of the preludes.  I envy string players for the expression they can wring out of individual notes with vibrato, pitch bending & other devices.  we have ways of simulating that on the piano but they are imperfect (although they then introduce their own distinct expressive possibilities).  I encourage you to continue your study of the WTC and hope you will continue to share your observations with me/us. I too am challenged by memorization, and decided to forgo memorizing & 'perfecting' each piece before marching onward through the WTC.  so basically I'll "rough out" each one before moving on.  I believe that what I need to do next is go back and pick one and memorize/perfect it so that I try to keep that skill alive, while simultaneously proceeding with my march. Good luck & keep us posted!

Anthony Miyake Hi Anthony, let me try to contribute a couple of specific thoughts to the harmonies of the D Major Prelude that you reference above.  First of all, measure 2 is not an E major (at least in my Dover edition). It's an Em7. Measures 2-3 present what a jazz player would call a II-V -I in the key of D. 1st 2 beats are an Em7, next 2 beats are your A7 (the dominant). Both chords are in their root positions (E on Beat 1, A on Beat 4).  don't be thrown off by the bass notes on beats 2 and 4, I think they are just part of the articulation of the root position chord. So Bach has stated his key of D on Beat 1, but he never lingers long on a cadence (which can be very annoying when you're trying to pick a spot to start practicing a measure from!) by Beat 3 he's ready to move on. He keeps the same bass note (D) and quickly moves to E7 (or one could call Beats 3 & 4 a Bm7 moving to the E7 in the next measure. Basically another II-V-I into the key of A. In thorough-bass terms that E7 over the D in beats 3&4 of Measure 3, would be called (I believe) a "4-2" voicing (or something like that), referring to the intervals above the bass note - 2 being the E(implied in this case) and 4 being the G#.  Then, as I understand it, in measure six refers to a V-I resolution in the key of A.  Beats 3 & 4 of measure 5 being your e7th and measure 6 being your tonic A major in root position.  I believe a perfect cadence means going from V-I with the roots (E and A, respectively) in the bass.  (I'm still new to this thoroughbass analysis, but I have the enthusiasm of a new convert!). 

I hope that's helpful.  Let me know if you think so or if you disagree with any portion of this analysis.   Onward! 

Peter Golemme , Hi Peter, you're absolutely right about that second measure starting with an E minor, not E major notes.  I need to do a better job at proof-reading my posts before clicking the reply button.  Also appreciate your very detailed notes on the D major prelude.

I just finished watching Dominic's live stream on Baroque Style:  Featuring Bach's French Suite #5 and he mentioned that there used to be more improvisation in the playing of Bach (and Beethoven) and that Bach (and Beethoven), however, noted down their improvisations instead of leaving it to the performer.  So to me, there are a lot of parallels with jazz music as sometimes just the chord progressions are noted and the player is expected to improvise (usually with the right hand).  I was playing this jazz piece with a particular chord progression and my piano teacher mentioned that I could improvise from notes of the C Lydian scale and it would fit and it worked.  So I'm starting to see this D major prelude in that light, that it modulates through different chord progressions and Bach has noted his improvisation in the right hand.  So I think that's why it's so hard for me to discern any patterns in the notes.

Anthony Miyake 

Anthony Miyake hi ANTHONY,

I definitely agree, that virtually all of the WTC preludes Could be considered as examples of written out improvisations. My understanding is that performers in the baroque era routinely improvised things before they played their set pieces. (That’s where I think the term “prelude” may have come from:  it is some thing you “play before“ your actual pieces). There were certain conventions, and standard chord patterns and ways of approaching improvisation, just like there are in jazz today.

One purpose of the WTC was to instruct students. I believe that Bach wrote out these preludes as examples of how they might improvise on some of these conventional bass and chord patterns.

The pattern in the D major prelude may be seen as a four note figure. One note of the figure kind of “pegs” the harmony, and the other notes are three consecutive scale tones, whether or not adjacent to the note “pegging“ the harmony. in this sense, it is a four note pattern intended to run in perpetual motion over the changing bass  notes and harmonies implied by them. The challenge to the improviser would be to make it run continuously and logically from change to change. Bach shows how this might be done, and then for good measure throws in a flare in the last several measures over the A pedal point with BOTH hands running through the pattern, over a final intricate series of changing harmonies!
 

amazing all the way around!