Bach, "Great" Fugue in G minor, BWV 542
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ส.ค. 2013
- Johann Sebastian Bach's "Great" Fugue in G minor, BWV 542, with an animated graphical score
FAQ
Q: What's so "great" about this fugue?
A: It's called "great" to distinguish it from the other fugue in G minor (BWV 578) which is called "little"; you can compare it here:
• Bach, "Little" Fugue i...
The BWV 578 fugue is a stand-alone piece, but BWV 542 is a pair of pieces; its full title is "Fantasia and Fugue in G minor."
Q: What stops are you using?
A: The soprano, alto and bass voices are from the Ahlborn-Galanti Zilbermann module:
Soprano: Prinzipal 8, Dulzfloete4
Alto: Holz Gedackt 8, Quintade 8, Klein Gedackt 4
Bass: Subbass 16, Posaune 16
The tenor voice is from an A-G Romantic module:
Tenor: Flauto Mirabilis 8, Quint Flute 2-2/3, Piccolo 2
Q: I appreciate the animated graphical scores you make; how can I help?
A: There are many ways you can support my work:
free: watch my videos, like them, and share them with friends
$$$: become a Patreon patron: / musanim (per-video/per-month)
!!!!: underwrite the production of a video: www.musanim.com/underwriting
Q: Could you please do a video of _________?
A: Please see:
www.musanim.com/requests/ - เพลง
"But what have you done lately?" www.musanim.com/TH-camHighlights/
%❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ 2:45
This type of graphic presentation is a wonderful and powerful instrument to show everybody how counterpoint works and how a fugue is build
I was just commenting to myself on how these animations are a great way to teach someone about the different voices of a particular piece and how each follow's its own melody but still ties in
exactly, it's great to show how the different voices are arranged and how bach wonderfully changes the dominancy from one octave to the other.
Alejandro Esteban
phamsean3
It's also great for showing how organists need five hands and at least three feet (and maybe three brains, working as a team) to play his pieces. 😁. I seriously stand in "jealous" and thankful awe of Bach and all organists who play his music.
Bach, "Great" Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542nd comment!
oh, cool.
@@user-gm3wr9dc9m cool
I get it, good one, like cable 542 channels, 3 programs to watch
This visual transcription really enhances appreciation of the great composer!
When you find out that Bach improvised this Fugue at a job interview... And DIDN'T GET THE JOB
Proving "it's who you know." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fantasia_and_Fugue_in_G_minor,_BWV_542
Just another sign that Bach was way above his time.
I had no idea and the person who did not give him the job must have been insane!
@@VexaS1n You are right, Bach was ahead of his time! It's a joke, but this little episode looks like some kind of impressionism;)
th-cam.com/video/4WhPUqpaRp4/w-d-xo.html
@@VexaS1n I wouldn't say he was above his time. That would suggest that our time is above his time... which I don't think is the case, musically. Bach was very high indeed.
Q: What's so "great" about this fugue?
A: The composition speaks for itself.
When that nickname was given, "great" meant "big," and was just meant to distinguish it from the better-known "little" fugue in G minor.
@@smalinYes, it was a joke based on the description.
One of my favorite fugues from Bach
I think my favorite is the St Anne fugue but this is right up there
Bach, Little Fugue: You
vs.
Bach, "Great" Fugue: the guy she tells you not to worry about
But then you remember you're more famous
noob pianists be like: wait now i have to look at both of my hands?
noob organists be like: wait now i have to look at both of my hands and my feet?
Hey I just wanted to say that I'm super grateful for your work. As a visual learner, these videos really help me understand and learn from the way the different voices interact melodically and harmonically
Mr. Malinowski: What a tremendous service you have done for all of us to be able to SEE great music. Thank you.
You’re welcome. You might find this guide useful: www.musanim.com/TH-camHighlights/
I can't begin to comprehend this fugue. This is beyond this world. The voices blend so effortlessly and are so independent. And Bach's fugue subjects are the best!
The animation demonstrates the complexity and beauty of Bach's music so well.
I'm still trying to identify what makes this fugue so special to me. It doesn't display many of the clever techniques that other famous fugues do. It doesn't invert the theme, augment it or diminish it. It doesn't introduce any stretto (at least I couldn't identify it). However, the theme is so beautiful! Not only that: every counter subject is beautiful and special in some way, and new beautiful counter subjects are introduced minutes after the initial exposition. I keep trying to pay attention to every one of them at every theme entry. The episodes are amazingly well thought too, and they explore the theme material in so many clever ways. I can't say I have a favorite fugue, but I keep coming back to this one, especially to this video, in which both the audio rendition and graphical presentation are excellent. Thanks AGAIN, @smalin !
Hello, i am a begginer at classical music. could you reccomend fugues that you think are more complex? (Aside toccata and fugue)
@@anthonyfarias5076 You should listen to the passaglia and fugue in c minor... My favourite interpretation is the video called "Passacaille et fugue en Ut mineur, Jean-Sébastien BACH", I am always amazed by the performance.
Amazing comment by the way
@@malodavout6729 Thanks for the response. I'll listen to them. Have a good day.
@@malodavout6729 Listened to it. I absolutely loved the first part. Thank you for the amazing reccomendation :D
Such an incredible piece of music.
This brings back memories. I would sit with my Aunt, while she practiced Bach. I will never get tired of Bach! 😃😃
What's so "great" about this fugue?
Literally everything.
It is named that way to distinguish it from the more famous little fugue. It also a double and is paired with the A minor prelude and fugue. It so impressed Liszt that he had to make transcriptions for these organ works. I do not consider this as one of Bach’s greatest but light years better than any fugue from other composers.
@@jayliew5254 Wait how is it paired with the A minor prelude and fugue?
Theee animations really help me to see the complexity in all music you animated. I can see the structure and analyze the music better. When listening to music I like to analyze it. Thank you very much. Wonderful animations.
that's one messed-up game of pong
i dont get it
I get it
I think I get it
I think I don't get it
I get it
Incredible this way that we can "see" the voices!!
Tellement beau à écouter... tellement dur à jouer ! mais quel bonheur quand on y arrive ! La plus belle fugue de Bach à mes yeux.
I feel the same way this is very beautiful
I am glad you do these animations, smalin. As someone who is unable to read sheet music and has trouble following along, the animation really helps me to follow the voices and the structure of a piece, especially on a fugue.
Well, I can read sheets and still love these. It's just a form of art on its own rights. I can't even tell you how much it has contributed to my appreciation of music.
@@jb_1971 I can definitely see why those who can read sheet music may benefit too. I just wanted to state my own thoughts on the matter, as I can only speak for myself.
@@christianindividual4550 That is good to hear. I recommend looking at the gerubach channel too. They compile Bach pieces and scroll them with sheet music. They showcase when each note happens on the sheet music, and can help maybe to recognize certain things in sheet music. I learned about the trill sign from their channel, for example.
Gerubach and smalin are my favorite channels to help me visualize music.
@@christianindividual4550 Gerubach is a great resource indeed. It helps to see what notes go where, and how they look on the sheet music. I am glad there are people like Smalin and Gerubach on TH-cam.
Like this if, after watching intently for 6 and a half minutes, everything on your screen is now mysteriously sliding to the right...
bwb en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_aftereffect
bwb to the left you mean right? :-)
Pablo Grande López He means right.
+bwb spoopy
+Samuel Goldie its the musles getting tired in the eyes/brain. I forget the exact explanation, but its something you can look up. Sorry, not much help; just not spooky, though
I love how the notes are color-coded. You can actually see the brilliance of Bach with this piece.
I think you have done an important thing by animating bach's fugues. Because it makes it much easier to understand what each line is doing 👍
th-cam.com/play/PLtj_HurkS7ZxrGJzC4u2f95vxzZNnlZ74.html has most of my fugue videos (mostly Bach)
absolutely invaluable
this video makes it easy to see the reoccurring patterns/phrases as are fundamental for a fugue, thank you!
unreal performance, makes me shiver
What a clever and fascinating presentation of a great piece. I'm capable of reading the most complex pieces of music, but this makes the complexity of this fugue much more intuitive. Well done.
Glad you appreciate it. Many people who are fluent in reading conventional notation say they've learned new things from my animated graphical scores. (I know I have.)
Hard for me to choose between “Little” and “Great”, both sound very beautiful.
Sometimes good things come in small packages.
@@smalin ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Amazing piece. My favorite part is around 3:37 in the video when the bass breaks out of the pedal point and starts to modulate through the circle of 5ths, creating some really nice harmony with the subject entry in the tenor. Bach truly was the father of harmony. And what a great subject for a fugue...
4:45 the most epic part
4:47 not 4:45
I had a feeling girls would like that part
Na 5:12 is the best part.
I searched for Best Fugue and this is what I got. I love a good fugue. Wow, this is a good fugue!
You might want to check out the fugue in this (starts at about 5:30) ... th-cam.com/video/4FIEtH3VUCY/w-d-xo.html
Did you listen to the other Fugue in G Minor(BWV 578, also known as Little Fugue)? To me it's the best Fugue.
Lucius Vulpes 核負鼠 I did. I found I preferred this “great” fugue for its simplicity. I like how it has just a few voices at a time for some of it.
I cant even tell you how happy this makes me.
Fugues are freakin great. Like a multidimensional puzzle.
I am SO grateful for your work on this and other pieces. Great performance too! You have brightened my life--I use these for exercise inspiration. Bach counterpoint puts me in a great mood--I could swear it limbers my cogitation.
This is probably my favourite graphical score of you.
Clear and easy to follow!
The moving beat notes were one of my favorite parts of this fugue 4:08-4:18. What really surprised me was that the 2nd pedal (the green one) was able to reach the 3rd lowest semi-tome in what I called "the ladder climb" part 2:22-2:59 and then the 3rd voice (the pink one) did it as well, except that since the chords from the first one were at D-Minor and the next was at G-Minor, the relative distances switched places 5:12-5:45. Other than that, everything about this Fugue was really "Great!"
The 'colors' make it so much more accessible.
Thanks for this, makes understanding complicated pieces like this so much easier!
Have a listen to the Fantasia that precedes the fugue as well, it's an absolute banger
I did exactly this with my adlib-program on my PC in the 90s😂
th-cam.com/video/IJ4qJ8mW6-o/w-d-xo.html
I've been waiting for this piece. Thanks
This relaxes me at the end of the day. First heard in. Freiburg Cathedral im Breisgau in the Black Forest In. 1962 Loved it ever since . a masterpiece
This is so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes.
I needed to see it that way.
My favourite Bach fugue. Thank you for animating the score!
I have already listened to this Fugue easily over 100 times by many people, and every few listens I hear something new and completely mind blowing. Watching this video made me even more aware of the amazing patterns & complete epicness that Bach creates. God, it makes me so thankful he lived!
smalin thank you for sharing with us these masterpieces. Your channel is the first channel that I have subscribed and it will remain as long as your kindness of sharing these great works with the world continue.
Your videos are simply the best way to show a beginner quickly and simply what a fugue is.
They show some things, but not all. For example, they don't show the tonality of the entries in the exposition (one of the features that distinguishes fugues from similar forms like ricercares).
@@smalin ricercare, back to Google, again, and again. This research never stops. Hey I di s h es to wash. Stop it, spell check Y T
I've had a midi of this particular fugue for quite some time. Unfortunately it wasn't labelled so I had no idea what Bach fugue it was. I'm glad I've found this version, and I'm equally glad that you uploaded it. Thank you!
What a fantastic fugue and amazing presentation !
If you like this, try the fugues in this playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLtj_HurkS7ZyzWU6_flH9RG2K2E1tWd1f.html
Thanks so much for sharing this beauty with us, Smalin! I am very grateful for that,
you did an excellent work.
These are brilliant illustrations to show how each "voice" comes in on a fugue, and how a fugue is "engineered" by the composer. Explains so well. Thank you.
Outstanding as ever!
I love this! The video allows me to pick an instrument and follow it from start to finish without losing it when other instruments come to the forefront. Thanks for this!
That’s about the best illustration of a fugue, as there possibly van be.
Every note can be followed, on one level or another, by anyonw wanting to find out what a musical fugue is about.
Ss always, great music animation and faultless synch.
that picardy third at the end though
typical bach :v
Lollipop I think it was well needed. The fantasia that is played before the fugue ends on a minor chord, so it made sense to end the fugue on a major chord to finally relieve the tension.
Beautiful performance. I like the stops; the soprano is like icing on the cake and doesn't ruin the imitative dialogue between it and the alto or tenor near the end.
Yes.
Bach is audible fractals
Nope
Learning this now on piano ( Liszt transcription) So interesting to visually see how the voices are woven together- love Bach❤️🎶😊
This is a really fantastic idea, and a useful way to expose those new to these forms of music, as the visuals will surely help them follow the texture. Well done!
doug stuffly 8
Thank you, Stephen!
I thought, I knew this fugue by heart, but your score and performance showed me how much I missed out in structure.
I myself lived and loved the way the pieces were done; music is in all forms Organ, keyboard etc... My point is it how it's played. and by. whom or who performed. it... just loved the way it was done!!!
Fantastic job! What a pleasure to listen to! Many thanks!!
This helps me appreciate the art of fugue and its concepts. thank you so much ...
Saw this one perfomed live, it was so cool! He was so into it lol, he got to a bass part and looked like he was pressing the pedals hard enough he was about to fly off the stage. it was really fun and very well perfomed.
That was perfection!!!
I'm really glad I found your channel, it's beautiful. Thank you
Beautiful
I applaud this animation. It helped me to understand the structure of this complex fugue and to appreciate Bach's thinking processes as (or more likely, before) he composed with pen and paper.
Agreed.
Very nice work my friend.
Magnífico!
sublime sound. I hear this and close my eyes and feel the greatness of Bach.
Thank you so much! This helped me understand the overall structure of a Bach fugue.
Bellissimo anche da guardare!
Bach forever. Legendary sound
So wonderfull!!!
I am thinking of Bach listening to this,..he ´d surely be smiling!
this is really amazing
One of my very favorite pieces of Bach--especially the Major chord @ 6'14"
6:14
lol that must be one of the Easter Eggs hidden in the clouds.....
What an incredible way to show the Master's genius! I never thought I would enjoy "Watching" Bach! Thanks for sharing this great escapw
Awesome indeed. Bach's skill at counterpoint was simply unbelievable.
I just found this today. Man, how this would have helped me when we were studying fugues in college theory class! Not being a piano player, it was harder to follow the score in my early years. Thanks, so much, for doing this!
Bach is lit
Thank you Sir for this marvelous video
Fugue , i have to compose one , now !!
So you want to write a fugue? You've got the urge to write a fugue?
nsmc99
Ive already done several :D , now ive got the urge to write a "great" one :)
@@nsmc99 Never be clever for the sake of being clever.
Truly enjoyable! Heartfelt thanks and best regards!
Reminds me of "Columns," an old Sega Genesis game.
especially like the extended first note of the theme at 5:13, which elongates the eighth note D..
I tried it various ways. If I could have made it just a little less strong without altering its essential character, I would have, but with organ stops, you don't have that choice --- a stop is either on or off. I ended up deciding that even though it was louder than I wanted, it didn't prevent the alto or tenor voices from being heard, and was therefore acceptable.
Just love these 18st cover bands!
Love it!!! Well done!!!
most relaxing subject i've ever heard
Beautiful piece of music! I hope this gets a few million views! :-)
To all of the people saying this piece is good are just wrong, you can't simply call a masterpiece "good'
E.Power Biggs has recorded a version of this on the double pedal harpsichord
that is to die for. Would love to see a graphical animated score to this version!!
The splendid version of Power Briggs is the reference to listen & undertsnd. I keep my vinil in good shape!.
His renditions are fantastic for sure!
I have a Midi of this, which is around 114bpm. It is played on piano and it also has different accentuations on notes and on voices. The way these accentuations are placed seems really good to me. Those aspects above are the reasons why i prefer this midi that i have over all the recordings that i heard so far.
Wonderful music
How? I can't wrap my head around how a human could manage to create a subject this long and be able to incorporate it over so many keys, yet have it modulate and be harmonically perfect....Without any technology or the music we have today. Dear God, this is absolutely amazing.
+John How many fugues have you written? Can you improvise fugues? Here's Marvin Minsky improvising a fugue ... vimeo.com/153163929 ... haltingly ... he's no Bach ... but I expect he has a pretty good idea how Bach could have done it ...
+smalin
I have written 0 fugues successfully lmao. I've tried in DAW software to do it, which is a lot easier than notation paper but still to no avail. I've give it another go I think haha
+John How many fugues have you learned to play on the piano?
I'm only grade 3. I learned a few minutes of Tocatta and fugue in D minor after watching your video though. I'm more into theory/composition bit than the skill of playing them though.
Most of the ones I tried are too difficult for me to play.
TRANSCENDENTAL !