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Beautiful mark making. Music and calligraphy are one.

I'm curious. You use an interesting rastrum in this video. Where did you acquire it? I have a modern rastrum nib, but the ink seems to run out too quickly to draw staff lines across the page in a landscape layout. I'm just wondering because the one you use seems to have a reservoir area on it, which would be very helpful.

I dream of engaging in a similar situation as Bach did, meeting a dedicated group of musicians twice a week for two hours in the eveneing, over coffee/cacao, nicotine. Two hours each night is probably just the right amount of time, striking a balance between productivity and focus.

Hey dude, I really, really like your channel. I hope we would be friends if you visit Croatia for a coffee!

Those are some really great insights into his music writing, his family relations and his habits. Thank you so much for sharing this. =)

O sacred head now wounded...

Wonderful, thank you (again).

Very beautiful and exciting. Thank you so much.

Großartig!

Sehr geehrter Herr Witte, Ihre höchst interessanten Beiträge rund um das Schaffen Bachs sind nicht nur außerordentlich informativ, sondern spannend wie ein Thriller. Ich hoffe, Sie bekommen die verdiente Anerkennung und sage siebenstellige Zugriffszahlen voraus ;) Herzlichen Dank für Ihre überaus wertvolle Arbeit!

"...form and content are closely linked..." It appears that this would be visually analogous to his style of musical composition. Thank you again for sharing a superb video.

With all of the profound analysis by today's scholars of Bach's music - its spirituality, its depth, its passion, its architecture - and the modern means that we have at our disposal to create and edit and delete and print multiple copies - it makes it hard for us to conceive that Bach would have had to pay such close attention to the mundane and sometimes messy task of actually physically handwriting his music. We are fortunate that he was as good at it as he was. No matter how great a mind Bach had, we would have nothing from him if he didn't write it down. We live in a computer age - how often do you ever have to handwrite, and get it right on the first attempt? This seems similar to the medieval monks copying out the Bible, except that Bach had to create the music in his mind before writing it down. Did he ever write a rough draft before the final copy? He must have. Yet if he designed the layout of the page beforehand, he likely also conceived the design of the composition beforehand. Did he compose a fugue as he wrote it down, or did he create the whole fugue in his head and then put it on paper? According to his son, Bach did not compose at the keyboard. He likely had the same mental ability of someone with a photographic memory, so that a painter once having seen a landscape can later paint every detail. Or a math wiz that can perform complex equations in his head. Or a chess master who can play several games at once. Bach could probably manipulate any combination of musical notes in his head, and remember it, and later write it down with accuracy. He had the mind of an architect, engineer, physicist applied to music. Yet even Bach, as great a genius as he was, was not a disembodied spirit, or a Divine Mind, but a human being who still had employ ordinary means. It is this very juxtaposition of the ordinary conditions of Bach's outer life with his rich inner life revealed in his music, which seems to transcend all boundaries, that is a wonder.

where to get this kind of materials? and how to learn to use them? :/

In 300 years, when people ask how today's musicians do lines, it will be an entirely different sort of video. I think most currently use a $20, frankly.

I've always considered Bach's manuscripts as works of art. Then you hear the incredible music.... .

ok this is the perfect inspiration for the tasks and projects I have just began to formulate the minutia of understanding my necessity for embodying through practice. thank you!

A genuinely enjoyable video. How much practice was required for you to be able to mimic Bach's musical writing style so faithfully?

fascinating...

So many layer to discover thanks to the analysis of Bach's writing. ❤

Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for this deep dive. ❤❤❤

I really like your channel...but I think is would be more interesting to see the calligraphy in real time not in fast forward.

Please do talk on this for hours! We'd love to listen.

I wish I understood Bach's music at least partly as much as I love it!

Always very interesting videos, getting lost in small details and enjoying the search for Bach's truth!

Like the English translation of the name, Bach-thus “brook”-your words and calligraphy eloquently stream.

Amazing channel and content! Your unique perspective on history, calligraphy, and Bach is truly inspiring. Keep up the incredible work! Saludos desde Chile 😄

I never knew how much manuscripts tell about the composer until I watched one of your videos!

😂 Man, oh Man 😊

I can't believe Bach composed a love song for Apollo. Apollo is said to be the angel of the bottomless pit. Apollo isn't a "good guy" at all. Apollo means "The Destroyer". He's said to be the being who will lead an army against Jesus and stuff in The Judgment Day/Apocalipse/Revelations. "They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon." Revelation 9:11. I don't understand why Bach partook in such work. I did think all of his work was dedicated to the christian God. I would have never imagined that he composed for other gods as well... This is quite a shock to me. I was not expecting this.

Boy I wouldn’t want to see what staff lines reveal about me, I can imagine and it isn’t good.

Is your calligraphy available for purchase?

Like any good historian, you grasp that worlds upon worlds are implied by the smallest details of ordinary life-a stray mark, a hair!

...and I could listen to you talk about this for hours, too.

The score is beautiful 😍

Be: "muss es sein?" Ba: "Man"... Be: "es muss sein."

I love learning Calligraphy through your videos

Please *do* talk about it for hours :) Back when I still used to write music on paper, I always used a Pilot Razor Point. The first thing I would do after I opened it for the first time was split the plastic tip. That way you could get quill-like performance from it. Turn it one way and you get super-thin lines for stems and such. Then turn it halfway the other direction and you could get a nice thick line for 8th and 16th note flags and beams. Although I'm glad to have traded paper for perfect parts printed by the computer, I wouldn't trade the knowledge and experience of writing on paper for anything.

4:38 this is beautiful. Glad I stumbled on your channel. The single note remind me of the quote by Emerson "Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.”

J.S. Bach is THE Man !

Could you tell me about the rastrum you use? I collect and use old fountain pens for composing music and have written an article on music nibs, however am not as familiar with rastrums. The one you're using seems quite easy to use and produces healthy lines.

“Man,” Bach wrote, with all his powers, “Man, o man,” Joost talks for hours, All about this man who knows, Bach, this brook from whom good flows. Flowing water makes us live. Flowing notes, Bach’s work to give, Kept on paper, scribed with ink, Helping us to feel and think. Think on what? God’s love, so wide, Christ, our savior, crucified, And the Holy Ghost, inspiring Bach to work and make, untiring. Witte keeps his thoughts online, Scribing with his quills, so fine, Finest insights, newly seen Every while, upon the screen. Publishing so far and wide: Bach’s great thoughts have never died. They live on, as Christ lives on, Music that is never gone: Never gone because we make All this music for love’s sake: Loving God, we work and try Music that will never die.

You put so much work and effort into your videos! Beautiful! And poor Gottfried Heinrich, he really didn't have a great life from what I can recall. Fascinating to see what could have been his handwriting!

Beautiful video. But this new trend of animating portraits gives me the creeps. It's like a nightmare.

MAN I would love this score it’s so beautiful!

<3 such lovely videos you create thanks alot warm greetings

Brilliant. Thanks!

Welp I know what my sis is getting for Christmas this year

this makes me feel a lot better about the quality and condition of my writing and written compositions! 😆

Excellent and fascinating. Thank you for you work.

This is so wonderful! Thank you so much!