WTF Bach

Perhaps before composing the bulk of The Well-Tempered Clavier , Bach had been challenging himself to create a fugue with real technical daring. This fugue, in a minor BWV 865, represents some of the composer’s most ambitious fugal writing. Have a look at an outline of the subjects alone—you might even follow this image while listening to the episode— this might give you some idea of the task Bach...

Remember this image from the E-flat Major Prelude and Fugue epsiode, where Bach puts a double fugue at the half within the half ? Bach does it once more in today’s episode. We’ve arrived at the other double fugue in this collection, BWV 864 in A major. Bach begins the prelude by juggling three ideas: The ordering of these ideas will switch. A few bars later we see the same three ideas shifted arou...

Back to Bach next week! In the meantime, I thought you’d appreciate a story I wrote after I ‘discarded’ the majority of my possessions— mostly books. Whereas I easily tossed things like clothes, artwork, komono , plates, pens, et cetera, getting rid of my massive library took months and was an emotional rollercoaster. I haven’t ever looked back! …mostly. Sans Eyes, Sans Books, Sans Everything If y...

I don’t blame us for preferring our rather clean, modern Bach editions to this: But are we so confident in our own interpretations that we can throw out the likes of Hans Bischoff, Carl Czerny, Ferruccio Busoni (pictured) and Donald Francis Tovey? These heavily annotated performance editions, while, yes, they should be read alongside a ‘cleaner’ modern edition, can certainly still teach us some be...

Happy Birthday Johann. Today, March 21st, not March 31st. Let me repeat that for those of you feeling clever or citing google without thinking: Happy Birthday Johann. Today, March 21st, not March 31st. Why are people confused about this? How did this become a thing? And what extremely boring person got so frustrated with a toccata they started tampering with Bach’s wikipedia page? There were two m...

I was always jealous of jazz musicians, simply learning music off recordings— no sheet music necessary. Why couldn’t I do that? Why don’t classical musicians have this skill? It seems like all musical cultures in the world learn this way, so what was I missing? About 12 years ago I decided I wanted to be part of this tradition. After some trial and error, I hit upon a method that allowed me to lea...

Analysis starts at 17 minutes. Sorry, I got carried away talking about the possible peculiar paradox of being a pianist. Just before making this episode, my harpsichord forced upon me a change of interpretation, so I started thinking about how and why this happens. I spoke about the way classical musicians are ‘bred,’ asking the following questions: How can we spend our lives playing music from th...

“The discontent of being between two notes; the urge to break free of a single note.” -Lionel Party (Paraphrased ca. 2005) What an opening: In this episode we listen to at least 14 different interpreters play this expressive trill. Such a simple idea, but how many different ways this idea can be realized! At an even speed or speeding up? With a turn at the end or a turn at the beginning or no turn...

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” -Politics and the English Language Thanks for reading W.T.F. Bach?! This post is public so feel free to share it. Enjoying your contrapuntal journey? Here’s how you can help: We encourage our listeners to become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com Free subscriptions are also beneficial for our numbers. You can make a one-...

G Major: Bach’s key of virtuosity, celebration, exuberance (with his occasional contented reflections on mortality.) The passion music and death in the previous prelude and fugue is conquered by this G Major set, BWV 860 from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book One. The fugue is a brilliant model of contrapuntal technique. The three-voice fugue begins: But after only a few bars, Bach is ready to bring...

A new type of episode, Quodlibets ! Quod (what) + libet (it pleases) or, ‘whatever you like,’ ‘anything at all.’ This episode centers on a beautiful chorale prelude, but first, my, Ode to the Negroni: The Meeting of Etymology and Entomology at the top, then some Bach, and finally, how Paradise Lost was written, as explained by the English scholar, John Carey. Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott , BWV 7...

“It’s not that Bach writes music and then sits in an armchair and thinks about God... Bach writing music is Bach thinking about God.” Individual keys are often loaded with personal significance to the composer. To what extent was Bach thinking of the double sense of Kreuze — both as ‘cross’ and the musical sign for a sharp? As discussed in the episode, f# minor wasn’t necessarily the key signature...

The Well-Tempered Clavier … what does it actually imply? In this episode I seek (in 18 minutes) to demonstrate mathematically pure intervals, alongside ‘tempered’ intervals. The circle of fifths is in fact a spiral of fifths — it is infinite. We seek to make it a circle for convenience, but this means that the distance between what would be mathematically pure intervals must be altered (!) in orde...

A double canon from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein ! A bit late, but Bach’s take on this Christmas tune is really wonderful. See how both melodies combine to make a double canon: German mystic, Heinrcih Seuse , author of ‘In Dulci Jubilo’ English composer R. J. Pearsell’s setting of the melody . Spread the Love, Doubly Canonic: N.B. I’ve been wanting to make this rebrand for a while: The title of this podca...

I had the great pleasure of speaking with Mr. Paul Jacobs. On the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death, July 28th, 2000, Jacobs played Bach’s complete organ works in one giant 18 hour concert— he was 23. Our conversation spans how to memorize, scholars vs. performers, pianists playing the organ, pop music, music for consumption , ‘social media musicians,’ music as a substitute for God, The Art of Fug...

Update: Just got five promo codes to download Time Guru (the cool metronome app mentioned in the episode.) Send me a message or let me know down below you’re interested and I’ll share the codes! Happy Practicing Let’s get our good new habits in early in the year! In this episode, I read practical advice from three organists/organ method books. The organ method books are in a class of their own— hi...

This famous piece: saw quite a few revisions between its conception and the version we know. For starters, note the earliest version’s key signature, and the E-flat in bar 2: The most striking feature of the early version is the abrupt end: No presto ? No adagio ? No allegro ? The fugue (in 3 voices) is a fugue with two countersubjects. See them here, the first on top, the second below. Both count...

We’ve traveled halfway through the chromatic scale and Bach celebrates this victory with one of the more complex fugues in the collection. The subject is somber, full of half-steps and even a cross. It foreshadows the true finale at the close of all 24 pieces: This is one of the only fugues to make strict use of the countersubject, occurring in all but one (!) appearances of the subject. This moti...

YouTube These Days.... Enjoying your contrapuntal journey? Here’s how you can help: We encourage our listeners to become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com Free subscriptions (yes, you can subscribe for free!) are also beneficial for our numbers. You can make a one-time donation here. We run a 501(c)3, so let us know if you want a tax deduction: https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach https://venmo.c...

Anyone else feel like we don’t have enough fugues in F major? In the last of Bach’s four layerings to the fair copy of The Well-Tempered Clavier , we see some beautiful details that would have been lost had Bach not made this last series of revisions in the 1740s. It makes you wonder if Bach would have made even more, should he have lived as long as Telemann! Bar 42 reads like this in A1-A3 into t...

Giving thanks to all my listeners today! Why do you listen to this podcast? The original Spanish of the Borges poem, as read by my good friend, Andrea Profili. Otro poema de los dones Gracias quiero dar al divinoLaberinto de los efectos y de las causasPor la diversidad de las criaturasQue forman este singular universo,Por la razón, que no cesará de soñarCon un plano del laberinto,Por el rostro de...

Something’s missing: The fact that this piece was conceived independently of its solo line is a marvelous insight into Bach’s compositional process. Somewhere along the way, Bach revisited the piece and added the upper line: Here is a link to the video where Schiff talks about the Well-Tempered. And don’t miss the Kurt Vonnegut moment at 32:45! We survive solely on donations. Thank you for your he...

Just a few moments ago, two newly christened works were connected to Bach’s name for the time after 320 years. Exciting news, have a listen! Many thanks to the Bach Archive in Leipzig for the production. (Sorry for any glitches in the production, episode made in haste!) Know someone who’d enjoy hearing about this joyous discovery? A link to the source of d minor Chaconne, BWV 1178 A link to the so...

—More matter with less art. (Hamlet, II.ii) Got friends who speak English? Spread W.T.F. P.S. The music at the end is a taste of a forthcoming W.T.F. Bach album: arrangements of the Orgelbüchlein . Album title suggestions welcome! We survive solely on donations. Thank you for your help! We encourage our listeners to become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com Free subscriptions are also great...

“Whoever has once felt this wonderful tranquility has comprehended the mysterious spirit that has here expressed all it knew and felt of life in the secret language of tone, and will render Bach the thanks we render only to the great souls to whom it is given to reconcile men with life and bring them peace.” -Schweitzer, Vol. 1 W.T.F. Bach wants YOU to subscribe A prelude in E-flat minor, with a f...