J.S. Bach - Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV 903 (date unknown)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 - 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations as well as for vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.
Please support my channel:
ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans
Uploaded with special permission by performer Peter Watchorn
www.musicaomnia.org
Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV 903 (date unknown)
1. Fantasia (0:00)
2. Fugue (6:49)
PETER WATCHORN, pedal harpsichord
(Hubbard & Broekman after Ruckers/Blanchet/Taskin,
1990/after J.A. Hass, 1734)
The Chromatic Fantasia is perhaps Bach’s most celebrated single work
for solo harpsichord, apart from the familiar collections of suites, preludes & fugues. It was singled out early on for special comment:
“I have taken infinite pains to discover another
work of this kind by Bach, but in vain. This
fantasia is unique and never had its like…it
is remarkable that this work, though of such
intricate workmanship, makes an impression
even on the most unpracticed hearer if it is but
performed at all clearly.”
Thus wrote J. N. Forkel in his Bach biography, based on information received from Bach’s sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel. This work, its date of composition unknown, came from the collection of W. F. Bach and, in its transmission through Forkel’s biography, became an exemplar for Bach’s “Romantic” style, which defined his image in the early 19th century, especially throughout Germany. It survives in numerous
copies, revealing several stages of development. The Fantasia is extraordinarily daring - even for Bach - with its dramatic use of constantly shifting chromatic harmonies, adjacent placement of enharmonically equivalent notes to effect rapid and unconventional
changes of tonality (A-flat becomes G-sharp at mm. 56 - 57 as an A-flat dominant 7th chord transforms into E major/C-sharp minor!) and brilliant figurations. There has always been the question of how the passages of open-note chords, marked arpeggio, should be interpreted.
In all the copies that survive (there is no definitive autograph), a written-out conventional ascending/descending broken chord is provided, perhaps as a model for what is to come. Schulenberg (1992) has argued
that this settles the question of how the subsequent chords are all to be dealt with, but Isolde Ahlgrimm, in her essay “The Multi-Faceted Arpeggio” (re-published in 2016 with the German edition of my 2007 biography of Ahlgrimm) makes the opposite case: that these sections are where the composer/performer should take over and create something new and radical every time, advice that I have followed with this recording.
It seems that a contemporary performer who was versed in Bach’s style (including Bach) may well have taken these special places as an opportunity to exercise spur-of-the-moment imagination and improvise passages in the spirit of those already provided by Bach elsewhere throughout the piece. The level of the response to these sections may well have constituted an important test of a performer’s on-the-spot compositional skill, an emphasis that is very different from the criteria by which modern pianists (and many harpsichordists) are judged as Bach interpreters. If this is true, then the single conventional, written out
arpeggio represents just the very beginning of a far more involved and sophisticated product.
The Fugue - perhaps not originally associated with the Fantasia, as it is not included in all the sources - is also innovative in various ways, with its ascending chromatic subject, the first seven-note unit of which is immediately repeated a fourth lower; the jazzy tonal “answer” of the second voice in m. 9, and the written-out octaves at the very end - the last
two features unique in Bach’s solo keyboard music. The only real counterpart for the Chromatic Fantasia is the parallel G minor work for organ, BWV 542, which takes the fantasia form towards the outer limits
for rhythmic and harmonic daring. The Chromatic Fantasia appears to have excited the imagination of Bach’s elder sons, and is the direct predecessor of the numerous fantasias for the large five-octave clavichord of the late 18th century by the two composers.
Peter Watchorn - เพลง
![[TH] VCT Pacific Stage 2 - Week 2 Day 1 // RRQ vs TLN | DRX vs PRX](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_OWt_-Lu3AE/mqdefault.jpg)
That had to be one of the most satisfying Picardy Thirds I've ever heard.
Finally someone who trills the Orgelpunkt in the final bars!! That’s how you tastefully show understanding of this piece and Bach’s writing
I was just thinking the same. It doesn't make sense to put such a long note on a piece for harpsichord, does it? So Bach himself probably meant that sould be played as a big trill
Just a few extra words by the performer on this particular recorded performance. The Chromatic Fantasia is a unique work amongst Bach's output, noted by the earliest biographies as singular and without equal amongst Bach's other music. One of the challenges for the player is the improvisatory aspect of the piece, especially in those sections marked "Arpeggio", which are simply presented in white-note chords. This was a common notational device to instruct the performer to arpeggiate and elaborate on the basic harmonic framework provided. My teacher in Vienna, Isolde Ahlgrimm write a compelling essay (in English: "The Multi-faceted Arpeggio" - it can be found in my biography of Ahlgrimm, written jointly with Regula Winkelman and published in 2017) investigating just what this meant in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the Chromatic Fantasia, you can see a written-out arpeggio immediately preceding the white-note chords. This is merely a suggestion, and is likely to date from later than Bach himself (there being no surviving autograph manuscript of this work). In fact, it is a very simple and straightforward interpretation: just a simple ascending and descending arpeggio. This kind of arpeggiation is common in works for clavichord of the generation after Bach, specifically the works of his second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. The Chromatic Fantasia, probably from around 1720 hearkens back to the North German Stylus Phantasticus, where the quality of the improvisation was only limited by the imagination and skill of the player. Therefore, it may well be that the performer was meant to do more than simply arpeggiate chords here: it is more a call to take over the composition for a time and add one's unique voice to its (re)creation.
In my performance I have tried to think like an early 18th century German improvising musician, employing figurations and elaborations that are in accord with the remainder of the work. My elaborations were literally improvised at the sessions, not written down. I chose the best (in my view) of five or six different takes. This was also done in the short introductory Fantasia to the long, virtuosic A minor Fugue, BWV 944 (also posted on this channel). Again, this was entirely improvised on the spot, not written out and studied. A skillful composer would have tried to incorporate material that would also be used in the fugue in order to integrate the two pieces as part of a unified whole. I have attempted to do that, too. There is no composer more disciplined and economical in his use of material than J.S. Bach, so a performer seeking to take on these particular works must employ resources similarly. As with many other of my Bach recordings, I have employed a pedal harpsichord in order to add "gravitas" to the work, bridging the gap between organ and harpsichord that existed much less in the 18th century German musical thinking and experience than it does in our own.
No performance can be definitive, or represent the final word; however, here I have attempted to adopt the mindset of a composer-performer and produce actual "live" music, such an essential element of the Baroque era in general and, specifically, of the work of J.S. Bach. PW
Your playing is awesome. Thank you for recordings. I‘d say the only pieces that show some significant similarities to this Fantasia are the Fantasia and Fugue c minor BWV906, Fantasia nach Albinoni BWV923 and the Fantasia g minor BWV572. The fugue is what’s really unique in my opinion, the only other fugue that is similarly “un-bachian“ is the unfinished fugue BWV906. Nonetheless great pieces (as usual with Bach) and your performance of the Arpeggios and trills is pretty much unmatched! The pedal is a great addition, doubling some of the left hand parts on the piano adds a similar effect, which I like doing on the piano. It’s very inspring to see Bach being played with gravitas and not like a Wiener Klassik era composer!!
Very cool! It's the baroque fake book 😁
That pedal entry when the arpeggios start was awesome
Хотя современные уши привыкли к фортепиано,роялю,это звучит просто божественно! Спасибо огромное. У Вас всегла есть ,что то,оригинальное для нас. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Oh my gosh what a wonderful coincidence! I just barely read about this piece online and you uploaded this NOW! How amazing!
There are no accidents.
@@daniloapostolov-dacatv1536 Master Oogway
@@pianobern69 Yeah
My playing of this public domain piece was forbidden here; glad that Yours is allowed to be shared..
05:52 the return to the opening figuration in this finale is performed in a way that is just simply impossible to recreate because of how awesome it is. This recording might be the most fascinating (pedal) harpsichord playing I have ever come across. The long trill at the end gives me goosebumps!!
I heard this on viola.. Thank you for uploading this beautiful Bach composition with Sheet music.
Gorgeous!! 👏🏻
Complimenti per l’esecuzione accurata.
Al fin poniendo joyitas del repertorio baquiano.
It's a doozie
I heard it was written around 1720.
Is there any doubt if this piece is really by JSB himself? I find the prelude just to sprawling and weird. And the fugue is not on B's normal technical level.
@Lunar Orbit I have played and studied every note that Bach composed for harpsichord. There is a handful of works (some even copied by Bach himself) that seem questionable. This one is not among them. Bach's voice is clearly present in the thematic audacity, the contrapuntal skill. The Fantasia and the fugue may have been composed separately. There is no question that this work is by Bach, acknowledged as such by Forkel, who received his information from the Bach sons. And, for me, the fugue is, indeed, on Bach's usual technical level, though unique. PW
@Lunar Orbit who said that quote
@@dominikweber4305 Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach's first biographer, basing his information on information received directly from Bach's sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel. PW
@@dominikweber4305 You'll find much more informations about the quote in the video description
You are obviously not used to Fantasias. It is very well possible Bach knew Sweelinck's works, ever thought of that? What about Buxtehude? What makes you think Bach adheres to a certain image of what you think he should sound and compose like? You come to these conclusions after one hearing or months of study? Leave it up to the scholars unless you become one yourself and get some research done.
Sprechende Interpretation. Ein Pedal-Cembalo wäre nicht nötig gewesen...
Mit einem positiven beginnen und mit einem negativen enden. Typisch. Zurück auf Null. Hätte man auch nicht kommentieren können.
not a huge fan of how the arpeggios are performed.
This is a highly explanative performance. I like it very much, because one can hear that the interpretuve gestures (i.e. phrasings) of the arpeggios come from the very everyday practice of Mr. Watchorn. Mr B's Watchorn-series in the late month or so helps a lot. :)
The phrasing of the improvisatory arpeggiation section is more inline with the phrasing that precedes it. This makes more sense logically since it adds to the structural cohesion than standard arpeggiation phrasing.