Thankyou so much for picking mi recording, I did it with a cellphone in an old piano and never thought it will be useful for something like this. Your analysis is accurate, I took a lot of liberties in this interpretation and many times aren’t welcome :)
WHY DOESN'T THIS VIDEO HAS 500.000 VIEWS??? Seriously it's FASCINATING the way she emphasizes the details that build the personality of each movement and how they end up defining the style and interpretation of the piece. I love it, good job!
She doesn't really say a whole lot about any of the dances..just general points about the kind of dance it is and trivial points like what key it's in. I think a lot of wasn't even accurate - like saying the courante is 'sweet', when the courante is actually supposed to be more robust compared to the allemande.
@@helvete_ingres4717 Or saying "the left hand's got it's own melody here" when really what she's highlighting is the imitative, almost fugue-like exposition that's common in Gigues.
really strange choice of tempo with alemand as the fastest. Curante is usually at a higher tempo than the alemand. Even the menuett is slower than the alemand
Isamar A, there is a big difference between the piano now a days and the harpsichord by 1722. On an harpsichord you almost can not do dynamic and the anatomic of the hand does not matter that much as you imagine. (BTW Bach is the father of the well-tempered piano but he wrote these suites for harpsichord :)
YAY I love baroque music! It's really complex but once you get the hang of it it becomes magical and you NEVER get bored of it because there's always something new to listen to hehe
Very nice structure to the video and presentation. I have my own interpretation of the dance movements in this particular suite, as I have based it on my “embellished” score from Bärenreiter. Allemandes, imo, have been ‘accelerated’ too much so, and not based on any scholarly definition that I have read. To note: Johann Gottfried Walther, Bach’s cousin, is quoted as saying the Allemande “must be composed and likewise danced in a grave and serious manner.” This flies in the face of many performance interpretations of the Allemande as being played in my words, “super fast”. And given the origin of the dance movement itself, a German dance doesn’t strike me as something akin to the Italian ‘vivace’ rhythm and/or motion. And if we are to delve into French Baroque ornamentation, which is where Bach got his own tables from (D’Anglebert, de Grigny, and possibly Couperin in his “L’Art de toucher le clavecin”) we have to understand that every ornament has to essentially “slow down” the beat or tempo in order to execute properly said ornament. So if one is to historically interpret Bach’s music as it should be, then many factors have to be included in a more sound, musical interpretation. Other than all this blathering, keep up the good work with these vids!
When I started the piano after my retirement, every musician friend said to start with Bach. Two and three voice chorales and menuets, some preludes. I want to learn inventions by playuing them with one hand. When I have gotten my chops, I will then tackle Taylor Swift music.
Hello, could you please make an analyse video about Haydn piano sonata in e minor? I appreciate your job and you will help me very much cause I have a concert in a month and I want take a closer look at the piece. Thank you very much.
A good presentation of a favourite teaching piece. (There's just so much *music* in these French Suites!) Still, I'd point out that the pronunciation of "gigue" should really be something like "zheeg" (even if I rather like the idea of a "gig"!). I don't really think of this Courante as a particularly fast piece, but I suppose that's because the bar-length is rather expansive in 3/2.
It's also possibly worth mentioning that, as with most of the Suites, the Gigue is not merely contrapuntal but *fugal*. (My Wiener Urtext/Schott/UE edition gives the metre as 2/2.)
Nice video presentation. Besides the English Suites being more complex, the thing that makes them more difficult to play is that each of the 6 has an Overture which is a longer intro. The basic order: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Optional & Gigue is correct. The optional can be Minuet or Minuet 1 & 2, Air, Polonaise, Bourrée, Anglaise and in some of them more than 5 dance suites. Definitely some of the pieces do have different versions / possible variations of playing such as the Fr. Suite #3 Minuet & Trio where some of the measures can be played in more than 1 way.
The English suites were more French than the French ones? No wonder why most of the public doesn't take classical music to heart. Who can comprehend Bach, who at least has name recognition, let alone the 100s of other notable composers. Given a choice, I'd pick the French suite #5 as my fav out of all the French suites.
I haven't tried playing any of these yet, because I feel that I should first put more time into the inventions, sinfonias and the 48. I see these three families of works primarily as tuition aids, to get my brain and hopefully my fingers correctly to where they need to be. For me, inventions/sinfonias/WTC are the tutorial pieces and drills; the suites are where I get to put those skills into practice. Of course, being Bach, even practice pieces stand perfectly fine in their own right. Curious if others feel the same about studying these other groups of composition before undertaking a proper performance suite.
The french suite N°1 has in fact a completely different style than the other 5; the style is rather close to the english suites with its dense counterpoint in the older german style. So the N°1 suite is not really representative of the overall set. The French suites though indeed compiled together by 1725 have undergone significant revisions afterwards late in the 1730s. There are 2 fair autograph MS of 1722 and 1725; but most editions use a combination of other later sources from copies made by different students.
Quick focus on the sarabande. The rythmic structure of the sarabande is quite diversified depending on the actual origin. It is usually built in 2 parts based on 4 measures phrase. The First part is quite often in 8 measures with 2x4 measures. The 4 measures are themselves a combination of 2+2; the rythmic pattern is over this 2 measures unit. Fairly common is a pattern like this : SL or SSS/SL/SSS/SL. In the 2 measures unit, the first beat of the first measure is accented and the second beat of the second measure is a thetic beat. To remember that in baroque music the rythmic pattern is not necessarily aligned with the measure itself. Because the termination is quite often feminine, the second beat of the even measure is a point of repose. Usually the measures 6 and 7 show a break in the rythmic pattern going into duple meter to accentuate the cadential formula (hemiola). The second part is more diversified with more variety in the number of measures. It can continue to be in a multiple of 8 or 4 or occasionally include segments of 10 measures. In this particular sarabande by Bach the second part is quite regular with 2 segments of 8+8 measures. Though with the complexity of harmonic progression, the rythmic pattern is blurred compared to other sarabande with a simplier structure. Even though this music is aimed at being played and listened as such, it retains the initial characteristics of the underlying dance; and the structure of the piece is derived from the rythmic step-unit of the dance it was designed to support.
The sarabande is not a choral piece per se; it is written in 4 voices but really it is basically a 2 voice counterpoint harmonized with 2 intermediary voices. It is built following usual thoroughbass harmonizing patterns. In the first section, the bass is descending stepwise from tonic to dominant; each measure is based on the bass pedal and the other voices are built using the usual XVIIIth century rule of the octave or some variation of it. In a true choral piece the voices have more independant path and harmonies are the result of the voice trajectory.
Awesome and such a joy to view. Finally seeing some of the French Suite scores, I am now wondering if it will be helpful to at least start this collection along with Bach's Inventions. Allysia, what is your professional opinion?
