Thanks Ray. I don't play violin but I thought I was familiar with the Bach, having listened many times to it. But it turns out I didn't understand at all the complexity until this
I am no expert and you have more than likely thoght about all this before, In bach's time the to major instruments for keyboard public performance are the pip organ and harpsichord, both if these have no usable dynamics when making the not unlike the piano that does, They depended on two major ideas for phrasing. agogic accents and spaces, that is holding a note slightly longer and leaving silences to creat the phrasing. This almeans that just because there is a page of sixteenth notes does not mean the are all the same. lets not forget notation has evolved as well and in his time much more was left to the performer, bottom line i dont believe that Bach would have thoght or written any differently for organ or orchestra the idea of agogic accent and space would I believe been part of all his music, The other point that goes hand in hand with this is chorak and orchestral was a very big portion of his works and singers and winds have to breath so i belive the music must be felt of breathe, finally and much less agreed on is the idea from bachs own words that every thing he wrote was for the greater glory of god, In his day triple rythms were thought to be holy and dupal secular so so called secualr bach keyed in dupal rythms shuld be played in a compound tryple rhythm, but remembering the all those notes which in modern notation would all be the same are not ina baroque notation which uses agogic and spaces for the major tool of phrasing, and it should breath, no wind player or singer shouold run out of breath in the name of too much lagato
when a note is held slightly longer it is perceived as a bit louder even if its not, and conversly leaving a space after a note is a great phrasing tool
Thanks for sharing! As far as I know: Soloists were asked/forced to improvise on the basso continuo (sorry, I don't know the translation) during the baroque era. Especially during a cadence. That's were the cadence trill at the end comes from, it was a signal to the other musicians that the soloist was done improvising (if I am not entirely wrong). Instruments have improved a lot, not just keyboards. The flute was altered in 1847 to 1871 by Boehm, so it was way harder to play flute before his invention (the intonation was all over the place and the fingerings were more difficult). As a wind player I am not sure whether every composer did remember that wind players have to breath occasionally (a lot of pieces end on a very long note and the accompanist has to play a ritardando while the flutist is dying to end the piece or take really long runs of 16th notes combined with a crescendo normally ending on a long note without a chance to breath inbetween).
my idea is that bach and other composers of that period would write down the music with the notation practices of the time which were much less detaild and strict as today, they expeted the performer to know the ornimentation, in addition the idea that the pipe organ and harpsichord as mention above that have non or no useful dynamics with in the key stroke would hold some notes slightly longer an d some shorter than the manuscript woud show, i believe that Bach would have expected the orchestra and choral music to do this as well, its unlikely he would have changed this as he was creating the music on one these instruments or a clavidhord whih does have dynamics with a key stoke but he knows that the organ will not,
