Tonebase Bach Stage

Peter Golemme Delightful playing, Peter. My piano teacher just set me off on an adventure of listening to the works of Bach for solo instruments (cello suites, etc), as they can teach me a lot about how to play Bach on the piano. One video I came across for the 1st Cello Suite was an interpretation class by Benjamin Zander (conductor, and all-around joyful guy) in which he used the C Major Prelude as a stepping off point for a way of interpreting the Cello suite. It was intriguing.

And is it as much fun to play a fugue as it sounds? I know it's challenging, but there is such a joy and lightness in your playing that I imagine you are having a blast! Thanks so much for sharing.

Peter Golemme beautiful playing! You are too modest! I enjoyed your prelude, it always comes across differently, and much better, when played with an appreciation of the harmony, as you do. The fugue is lovely too, the melodies sing clearly and special mention for the different camera angles, which change in a very synchronised way with the music.  Thank you so much for sharing your work with us!

Natalie Peh Thanks for listening & for the feedback Natalie.  I'm almost ready to post another -- the F# minor from Book 2..  Having a devlishly difficult time with the memorization and getting an acceptable performance, but it's time to commit to video and move on.

I've been amazed to discover the video recording software that's out there for free (or very inexpensive), and trying to educate myself on the features, especially the multicam, which allows you to synchronize multiple recordings from different angles and switch between them.  For this recording, I rounded up every device in the household capable of recording video - 2 laptops, my phone, my iPad and an old Olympus hand held video recorder -- and perched at various spots around the piano. I then imported their recordings into the video software (LumaFusion for iPad in this case), and synchronized them.  Then you can switch between the angles wherever you would like. It has several built in transition effects, such as cross-dissolve, zoom, fade out, etc., so you don't have to figure out how to do that.  You just choose the transition you want to use and the length of time to get from Clip A to Clip B & the software does the rest.  It's been yet another learning curve, as I drag myself kicking and screaming into the digital age, but great fun nonetheless.  How I would have loved to have access to this technology when I was younger! 

Michelle R Dear Michelle, thank you very much for your comments. Your teacher sounds very wise, and you are in for a treat if you were not previously familiar with the solo suites. You'll hear multiple simultaneous melodies plus ongoing harmonies, emerging from an instrument playing a (for the most part) single note at a time! they are breathtaking and beautiful, every single one of them.

I've met Benjamin Zander in person (though he probably doesn't remember me). He's really a delightful and generous-spirited person, and a proseletizer (sp?) for the education of young musicians and concertgoers. He always puts together fascinating programs with the Boston Philharmonic and Youth Orchestra, championing young musicians and giving the most interesting talks about the repertoire as part of his concerts.

Michelle R And yes, it is truly exhilerating to be able to play multiple voices simultaneously in counterpoint. I've been fascinated by counterpoint since I first learned about counterpoint in one of Leonard Bernstein's priceless televised "Young Peoples Concerts" in the early 60's, featuring Bach's "little Fugue" in G minor.  I was astonished.

I also remember from around the same time a Rice Krispie's commercial, where each of Snap, Krackle and Pop sang a different tune extolling their respective sounds.  THEN they combined all three in a single counterpuntal melange! I sat bolt upright  when I first heard it and was spellbound every time it came on.  I later learned that we could produce such effects on the piano through the Well Tempered Clavier and became totally hooked. 

Peter Golemme yes, my teacher is pretty special. He teaches historical improvisation, too, and I’ve just begun learning about counterpoint (writing above a Cantus Firmus).

Is this the commercial?

Michelle R OMG that’s the commercial!!  Isn’t that amazing? Transports me right back to my childhood.

Some very well educated  musician laboring in the back room of an ad agency must’ve put that together, and somehow, miraculously, got it past all the reviewers at the agency as well as Kellogg’s.  

Thank you so much for tracking that down. I assume you got it off the Internet?! I Had no idea that stuff was like that was out there.

Michelle R thanks for sharing, this video is awesome! 

Peter Golemme One of my favorites! Great playing.

Peter Golemme Wow! Great to hear your playing and thanks for keeping this thread alive with multiple Preludes and Fugues at once! Happy New Year, Peter! 

Vidhya Bashyam Thank you Vidhya. Interesting to hear that it's one of your favorites.  You always focus in on and select some of the most interesting pieces to work on, & I've learned a lot from your Tonebase offerings. Some commentators have expressed disappointment that Bach did not end Book 2 with a large-scale all-encompassing work like the B minor of Book 1. But I think of this as almost an encore, following all the deep learned-ness that has preceded it. , Fun, bright, lively, and yet still a dazzling display of compositional technique, showing off how he can even use "faulty" contrapuntal techniques to create a perfectly contstructed fugue.

Andrea Buckland Thank you Andrea, both for your comments and for listening.  I love this thread (thanks again JCO for setting it up!) and check it almost daily for inspiration. I'm aware that I've talked a lot about my WTC journey but have not had much to post so far! I'm optimistic about 2025, that I'm going to have much more time for music, as my day job is winding down into full retirement... I have revisited your lovely, lyrical F# Major Fugue on this thread several times.  I've read through that one and worked out most of the fingering, and can't wait to learn it myself in earnest, when my pilgramge gets me to that site.  The F# Major from Book 2 is also beautiful and amazing (but really, are there any in the WTC that are not so?), and it might be interesting to do those as a pair.

Juan Carlos Olite Thank you Juan Carlos.  I'm glad to hear some of that might be coming through! I certainly struggle achieve it.

I continue to find illuminating things in your Goldberg variations, in addition to amazement at the steady stream of material you are churning out, as well as deepening awe and wonder about JSB. Even within this single piece (the Goldberg V's) he is encyclopediac and all encompassing in his approach to composition.

And yes, we've got to keep this thread alive! For one reason, I've got 90 more pieces to get through before I'm done with the WTC! and I continue to learn something from every single person's postings.