I learned this piece when is was 13 years old. I’m 54 now and picking it up again, it definitely takes you on a journey. I like your analysis, particularly the transitions between 3 keys starting in Cminor and ending in Gmajor. Excellent.
Finally a new full-length episode! This one is a bit special, as it includes a studio performance that I recorded in May this year. In the heat of the moment I played a few notes differently than written on the original score, but I chose not to get too upset about it as the changes don't really interrupt the harmonic flow. ;-) Thank you for watching and stay safe!
dear Andy. this was really thrilling. i came across the piece just about a month ago and as soon as i started practicing i felt that there is something special - and started to analyze for myself and also found an article about the piece. but your explanations and the way you showed them on screen were really magnificent. thank you
Like I wrote on another comment already, that really makes me happy if my videos help people who practice the piece! Which article did you find? I'd be interested in that - after all, I'm mainly here to learn myself as well :D
I’m learning this piece arranged for guitar, and I really enjoyed and appreciated your narrative of what’s going on! I understand just enough theory to be dangerous, but your analysis gives real purpose to all that language, both teaching me more and motivating me to learn more.
Reading comments like this always makes me very happy! I'm going to keep the "filling theory with purpose"-aspect in mind for future episodes (that I'll hopefully get around to make soon, I just had a lot of real-life work in the last months...)
Great stuff thanks. The Bb dim 7th at measure 27 seems to function as A7b9, is that why it is notated as II7/V (A is the II and D the V of Gm)? Bb is the III of Gm, so wondering if it should be listed as III/V or II7/V. Not arguing or anything, just trying to understand, as this is the "strangest" chord in this song. And Bach uses the diminished 7th chords in many crazy, interesting and confusing ways. Thanks again, cheers!
Hey, thank you for your comment! Indeed, I interpret the Bbdim7 as a rootless A7b9. A7 acts as a secondary dominant that leads to D(7), the fifth degree. Bb is indeed the 3rd degree of Gmin, but that's Bb major, not Bb dim (meaning Bb dim is a non-diatonic chord which needs to resolve in one way or another)
So simple, yet so satisfying! I am not sure how much the BMV categorisations match up chronologically, but 999 would suggest it is a later piece. But for me this is much less complex than the preludes you tend to find in the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier for example. It is indeed a master-class in simple voice-leading. It is interesting how he rearranges the notes of the chords to get dramatic effects. You played this well, but I admire some of the people (not the bourgois big record label pianists) who play this slowly using the all the pedal resources of the piano - including if you have it the sostenuto to get those pedal points and sustained notes.
The BWV ("das Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis") does not match with chronology at all, it is purely thematical. An attempt of representing that little bit of chronology which today we think we know, is the Bach-Compendium. Here, within the thematical gathering, a chronological order is represented wherever research gives a hint for it. There are many problems with the body of works by J.S. Bach when it comes to putting it into order: many pieces do not exist in original manuscripts anymore but only in copies (which may differ from each other slightly), and of some pieces we know that they must have existed once but they are lost forever. So, the more than 1000 works which we know today still bear many riddles and questions, and are an ideal object for research for so many scholars. 😅
Thank you so much for this analysis. I learned this piece as a teen-ager also. It was not easy for me, because I had to re-learn reading music again to learn the piece, but it was well worth it. Also, the fingering in the edition I learned from really helped a great deal. I finally understood the importance of fingering when playing Bach. 😄😄😄Anyway, I loved your harmonic analysis of this piece. Very interesting and clear.
This is a very neat and useful analysis. Thank you very much for the effort. It helps me memorizing it as I can crosscheck my view with your analysis. Interesting that it's actually very even (I do not use the word "simple") in its harmonic architecture: I can basically follow one chord and one ostinato and some repeating patterns in every bar. But sadly enough, the way I am fingering it does not quite allow for simple repetition ...🥲 Vielen Dank für all die Arbeit und den Elan, ein derart gut ausgearbeitetes Video zu erstellen!
That's an interesting view about not using "simple", I'm going to keep that one in mind. And yes, isn't finding the right fingering always the main challenge when learning a new piece? I found that's what makes prima vista playing so tricky for me, that my fingers just do whatever they want 😅 Danke für das Feedback, freut mich! :)
yup also it's a bit odd that the analysis is made on a piano sheet since this was originally written for lute as the name implies, but hey at least there's one video making such an analysis so here's that
Yes, the digital age does have its perks! ;) It is indeed great that easy-to-use, professional video editing software is available for free nowadays (sadly however, I still have to do the actual analysis myself :D :D )
I love this piece, thanks for sharing it! I only noticed that my version has a D in the bass at the 23rd bar and other slight harmonic differences here and there. How can this be?
The D instead of the Eb seems to be a common variant, I heard both versions in recordings of that piece. As for the other notes, those are on me and I only noticed after the recording session that I played them differently than written. 😅
Muy buen video lamentablemente el traductor de idioma de youtube no estuvo muy asertivo, pero el video esta muy bueno para enfrentar esta obra. Gracias por publicar saludos desde Chile.
I learned this piece when is was 13 years old. I’m 54 now and picking it up again, it definitely takes you on a journey. I like your analysis, particularly the transitions between 3 keys starting in Cminor and ending in Gmajor. Excellent.
Absolutely great analysis. It adds the structure to this lovely Bach prelude. Thank you
Finally a new full-length episode! This one is a bit special, as it includes a studio performance that I recorded in May this year. In the heat of the moment I played a few notes differently than written on the original score, but I chose not to get too upset about it as the changes don't really interrupt the harmonic flow. ;-)
Thank you for watching and stay safe!
>>p
Well done, thank you.
I adore Bach❤❤❤
dear Andy. this was really thrilling. i came across the piece just about a month ago and as soon as i started practicing i felt that there is something special - and started to analyze for myself and also found an article about the piece. but your explanations and the way you showed them on screen were really magnificent. thank you
Like I wrote on another comment already, that really makes me happy if my videos help people who practice the piece!
Which article did you find? I'd be interested in that - after all, I'm mainly here to learn myself as well :D
Bravoooooo❤😊❤😊❤😊❤😊❤😊❤😊❤😊❤😊❤😊❤😊
I’m learning this piece arranged for guitar, and I really enjoyed and appreciated your narrative of what’s going on! I understand just enough theory to be dangerous, but your analysis gives real purpose to all that language, both teaching me more and motivating me to learn more.
Reading comments like this always makes me very happy! I'm going to keep the "filling theory with purpose"-aspect in mind for future episodes (that I'll hopefully get around to make soon, I just had a lot of real-life work in the last months...)
Thanks so much great help for any pianist
Thank you very much for your analysis. I am about to study this piece and your comments greatly help my comprehension of this little jewel.
That's great! Makes me happy that the video is helpful for you!
Thank you so much for your video. It really helped me to understand the piece better.
Beautiful! Andy Thank you so much. It gives sense to what I have been studying. Greetings from Mexico.
Thanks a lot. I play it almost every day!
Great job as always!
Thank you!
Lovely
Great video. I’m really impressed.
Thank you! Really helpful analysis
Thx dude
First class video! Thank you thank you!!
Very happy to hear that! :)
thank you for sharing!
Thanks for this video, I learned a lot. Very well produced and the explanation is great. Greetings from Mexico :D
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! Saludos ;)
I love it at the speed that you played it here. Why do ao many people play it much faster? How can we know what the “correct” speed is?
Great stuff thanks.
The Bb dim 7th at measure 27 seems to function as A7b9, is that why it is notated as II7/V (A is the II and D the V of Gm)?
Bb is the III of Gm, so wondering if it should be listed as III/V or II7/V.
Not arguing or anything, just trying to understand, as this is the "strangest" chord in this song. And Bach uses the diminished 7th chords in many crazy, interesting and confusing ways.
Thanks again, cheers!
Hey, thank you for your comment!
Indeed, I interpret the Bbdim7 as a rootless A7b9. A7 acts as a secondary dominant that leads to D(7), the fifth degree.
Bb is indeed the 3rd degree of Gmin, but that's Bb major, not Bb dim (meaning Bb dim is a non-diatonic chord which needs to resolve in one way or another)
So simple, yet so satisfying! I am not sure how much the BMV categorisations match up chronologically, but 999 would suggest it is a later piece. But for me this is much less complex than the preludes you tend to find in the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier for example. It is indeed a master-class in simple voice-leading. It is interesting how he rearranges the notes of the chords to get dramatic effects. You played this well, but I admire some of the people (not the bourgois big record label pianists) who play this slowly using the all the pedal resources of the piano - including if you have it the sostenuto to get those pedal points and sustained notes.
The BWV ("das Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis") does not match with chronology at all, it is purely thematical. An attempt of representing that little bit of chronology which today we think we know, is the Bach-Compendium. Here, within the thematical gathering, a chronological order is represented wherever research gives a hint for it.
There are many problems with the body of works by J.S. Bach when it comes to putting it into order: many pieces do not exist in original manuscripts anymore but only in copies (which may differ from each other slightly), and of some pieces we know that they must have existed once but they are lost forever. So, the more than 1000 works which we know today still bear many riddles and questions, and are an ideal object for research for so many scholars. 😅
Thank you so much, danke schön ! Very helpful for me as a true beginner. You have a new subscriber :-)
Thank you! That's great to hear 😊
That was great, thanks.
Happy to hear that! 😊
Thank you so much for this analysis. I learned this piece as a teen-ager also. It was not easy for me, because I had to re-learn reading music again to learn the piece, but it was well worth it. Also, the fingering in the edition I learned from really helped a great deal. I finally understood the importance of fingering when playing Bach. 😄😄😄Anyway, I loved your harmonic analysis of this piece. Very interesting and clear.
Sehr schön vorgespielt, vor allem die linke Hand.
Danke! :)
This is a very neat and useful analysis. Thank you very much for the effort. It helps me memorizing it as I can crosscheck my view with your analysis.
Interesting that it's actually very even (I do not use the word "simple") in its harmonic architecture: I can basically follow one chord and one ostinato and some repeating patterns in every bar. But sadly enough, the way I am fingering it does not quite allow for simple repetition ...🥲
Vielen Dank für all die Arbeit und den Elan, ein derart gut ausgearbeitetes Video zu erstellen!
That's an interesting view about not using "simple", I'm going to keep that one in mind. And yes, isn't finding the right fingering always the main challenge when learning a new piece?
I found that's what makes prima vista playing so tricky for me, that my fingers just do whatever they want 😅
Danke für das Feedback, freut mich! :)
Phenomenal analysis! Thank you so much!! Makes music alive and breathing
Thank you for watching! I'm glad you liked it
I’ve played this piece on guitar for so many years that it is truly odd to hear it on piano.
Lol likewise , I played it in d minor though
yup also it's a bit odd that the analysis is made on a piano sheet since this was originally written for lute as the name implies, but hey at least there's one video making such an analysis so here's that
Great analysis… I would have been ready for a fully detailed 1 hour explanation 😊
Haha, thank you so much!
You're so courageous to do a facecam. I would'nt dare, personally. Also, great analysis!
Thank you! :)
Yes, talking to a camera definitely takes some time to get used to. ^^
I'm so glad AI has become so advanced that we CAN ANALYSE m,usic in suych depth now.
Yes, the digital age does have its perks! ;)
It is indeed great that easy-to-use, professional video editing software is available for free nowadays (sadly however, I still have to do the actual analysis myself :D :D )
I wish you had an overhead camera. Nice analysis.
Thank you for your feedback! I've been experimenting with overhead shots here and there since then, I'll see if I can make that a more regular thing
Thanks
Audio
I love this piece, thanks for sharing it! I only noticed that my version has a D in the bass at the 23rd bar and other slight harmonic differences here and there. How can this be?
The D instead of the Eb seems to be a common variant, I heard both versions in recordings of that piece.
As for the other notes, those are on me and I only noticed after the recording session that I played them differently than written. 😅
vielen lieben dank, ein so schönes stück, meistens viel zu schnell gespielt. Aber die Analyse war klasse, danke!
Vielen Dank, freut mich dass es dir gefällt! :)
Great video, knew I’d be glad I subbed :) Any chance of a Chopin analysis?
Thank you! Yes, quite possibly :)
Muy buen video lamentablemente el traductor de idioma de youtube no estuvo muy asertivo, pero el video esta muy bueno para enfrentar esta obra. Gracias por publicar saludos desde Chile.
Gracias por tu comentario! Saludos
👍
Bro looks like he's gonna kill me
Suppressive expression of the dominant chain
Sounds way better on classical guitar.
Beautiful! Andy Thank you so much. It gives sense to what I have been studying. Greetings from Mexico.
Thank you!! It always makes me happy when my videos are helpful to someone's music studies