Analysis of D-Sharp Minor Fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (Augmentation Strettos)
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Richard Atkinson analyzes the amazing counterpoint in the astonishingly complex D-sharp minor fugue from Book I of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, including a discussion of augmentation/prolation canons and strettos. This is a fair use educational commentary that uses a performance/recording of Kimiko Ishizaka at the piano.
The brief excerpt from the Credo of Ockeghem’s “Missa Prolationum” is from a performance/recording by The Hilliard Ensemble
The excerpt from Richard Atkinson’s “Thirteen Canons at Each Interval” is from a performance/recording of Richard Atkinson at the piano. Listen to the full performance here: • Thirteen Canons at Eac... - เพลง
"before the real fun begins"
This is one highly considered beasty. Truly a wonder. Gonna go listen to Hewitt play it again.
I studied classical music at the uni over ten years ago before changing to pursue another career. I remember how I started out loving everything about it, composition, harmonization, different styles and epochs and what not just to have my love for it ruined by lazy and uninspiring teachers. Your videos has reignited my love for the art again. Never stopped listening to classical music but I didn't get the tools to really appreciate the analysis and the details through uni studies and just one video of yours gives me more than I got in a year before. Thanks for your work, I hope you keep making videos!
It's a familiar experience. I find now the best way to proceed is do it by yourself and perhaps get a tutor for the private lessons. Alan Belkin's counterpoint series on here is excellent.
I agree with your frustration over uninspired teachers and really regret that they exerted such a paralyzing effect on your possible future with music. A mediocre instructor or professor is such an agent of undoing for a discipline. Obliquity, obviousness, obstreperous or momentum-deadening individuals may be worse than no education, because they mislead students into thinking they've hit the very unsatisfying limits of a field, whether its music theory, orbital mechanics, mammalian evolution or architecture of Antiquity. Yes, those have always been my personal interests and a few stultifying professors almost suffocated my curiosity. But a handful of others managed to cancel the regression and I'm now due for a Pritzker, a Pulitzer and two Nobels in Astronomy and Medicine! (Kidding. Although two of my music professors were Pulitzer winners so I learned some angles on serious composition).
I absolutely encourage you to return to classes if you like that idea. I'm almost 72 and I think there is no limit on childlike wonder, the lifelong value of learning, the muscle of generativity, cerebral insight or bolt-from-the-blue creativity.
But first pursue happiness. Homework assignments do not always sail to sunny shores!
Having no musical training i haven't a clue what you are talking about but, the beauty of the music, my God, my God.
Amazing... Bach's mastery and control, obviously, and also your incredible analyses. Thank you so much for these!
My favourite fugue of the WTC plus my favourite composer of the Polyfonic Era! What a felicity!
Will you be doing a video on Bach's C Major fugue (WTC Book 1)? I have just been studying that fugue that past days and it's mind-boggling how complex and amazing a familiar fugue to most people can be! All those strettos at the 4th/5th, 2nd/7th, and 3rd/6th...it's so amazing!
Amazing and instructional! This channel opened my mind to analyzing polyphonic pieces in a much more comprehensive way.
Thanks again! I would never have heard what you pointed out if left ob ny own. And--re Bach--not only is the counterpoint masterful and dazzling, but also the piece is artistically a joy to experience.
Thank you for this analysis. I wish I found this three years ago, when I was in school and needed to analyze the whole book!
The canon you composed is so beautiful I had to stop this video and listen to it completely. Great work!
Very detailed analysis for BWV 853 Fugue. I used it for my research and performance on BWV 853, combined with others' instruction on the theme structure and found this fugue has exactly 29 full themes covered in 87 bars (measures), which is 3 bars/theme, reminding me of the fact that Bach loves the number "3".
This piece is indeed not easy to perform, especially due to the beat and the changing structure. Anyway, I am still practicing it and half has been practiced. The remaining half will soon be done, hopefully it won't be tough
Thanks for all you hard work, I've been listening to your analysis of various composers you're doing a lot of work my friend. I feel like I'm back in college only better.
Wow. I've always loved Bach and your explaining it is even making it more clear why. Slowing down the subject and combining it with the original speeds really does something pleasant to the mind.
Richard, your canon is truly beautiful. I love the premise and the sonorities it discovered. Very haunting intervals and implied harmonies, almost like limnal triads--present by an emphatic absence--the roar of a center-middle empty seat.
You should make a video about Bach's a minor fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier book 1!
Keep up the great work! Amazing channel
So check out Smalin and his highly visual graphic for another perspective. God knows with Bach another perspective and another can't hurt.
Another place where the (fully) augmented subject appears only once per voice, from lowest to highest, is the 7th Contrapunctus of the Art of Fugue!
I have just discovered your fabulous channel. Bravo! And thank you.
Your videos are incredibly awesome and insightful! The intellectual analysis you provide is very professional, and your use of highlighting and visual effects really allow the viewer to understand and follow the points you are making. Very well done!! :)
This is the best performance I've heard
Just learning this wonder right now - thanks for your analysis.
Very cool analysis. Thank you!
I was already aware of the Ockegham composition - it's always baffled me how he managed to compose something so complex. How would you even begin to compose a prolation canon?
They are difficult!
I think that has to do somewhat with the simpler harmonies back then though…
Different time, different preferences. I´d say regarding to our perception of music, we lost something since then.... but I listen to Palestrina and Bruckner alike. :)
@@Angel33Demon666 The richer a musical language's harmonic vocabulary is, the easier it is to write canons, fugues, etc in that language. This is pretty obvious to me.
Renaissance composers did amazing contrapuntal stuff with just triads. Semi-related point: I think music for many (more than 8) voices is actually easier when the harmonic system is simpler.
Your canon sounds amazing, Richard!
Love this analysis, very thorough! Your video style reminds me of Joseph Anderson (video games), who is one of my favorites!
A TH-cam channel that focuses on counterpoint! Awesome! Perhaps treat your viewers to an analysis of the Confiteor and Et Expecto from bwv 232 (?)
I started a video a while back that included parts of the Gloria... I'd love to analyze the entire mass, but that would be a large undertaking.
Fascinating! I have been practising this fugue, but I wasn't even aware of the augmentation of the theme!
I truly appreciate the analysis! I have added this video to my playlist for my Music History Class. The main piece starts at 5:03
Thanks for these videos they are really good
Great analysis sis, thank you.
We took Ornet Coleman's "Invisible" and played at 4 different speeds once at Cornish in Seattle. what a great interesting polytonal spring board.
Thank you very much!
Really impressive video!!
I'm studying this fugue and his analysis is very helpfull.
Thank you for this analyzie!
It makes one want to orchestrate the piece. Nice work.
Love this fugue and your analysis of it. I hope you also look at d-sharp minor Book II Especially bars 31-35. Can't make heads or tails of it.Thanks for these inspiring videos!
I would enjoy to see such a colorful analysis of the F#minor fugue from Book II of WTC. The climactic interplay of the subjects in this triple fugue is one of the most interesting in the 48.
Ravel did something similar in the second movement of his Sonatina. The left hand plays something approximately have the speed of the right hand, overlapping beautifully.
Amazing!
Your canon is so wonderful, as your analysis.
Can you make an analysis of Bach's Confiteor from Mass in B Minor?
Thank you so much! :)
Isnt this similiar to the seventh fugue of the art of fugue?? That fugue features two augmentations and its invertions, it would be awesome if you covered that.
Lovely!❤️
7:05 Theme from the third Harry Potter movie ;)
Good ear!
thanks man
thanks!
I have an idea that incorporates your previous Bach fugue videos. I don't know if you will read this or not but here is my idea.
Perhaps you can make a series of videos explaining every fugue in the Well Tempered Clavier from the simplest of them all, the Fugue in C minor Book I to the most complicated which I imagine is one of your previous Bach fugue videos, perhaps ending the series with the Fugue part of the Tocatta and Fugue in D minor, explaining how Bach breaks multiple rules but still ends up with a good fugue. I realise you use piano recordings for your Bach fugue videos and in a piano transcription of the Tocatta and Fugue in D minor, there are tons of parallel octaves. But these octaves are mainly for register and mass to make the piano comparable to the organ and aren't of contrapuntal significance.
I myself have tried composing a fugue, and even planned on doing my own Well Tempered Piano(a series of Fugues much like Bachs Well Tempered Clavier except, not starting on C major(I would prefer C major being my last key in the Well Tempered Piano because I find C major to be boring and also, I find even slight chromaticism in C major makes me question myself whether it is just chromaticism or a true modulation)). Problem is, counterpoint is just so overwhelming. And the thing is, my first fugue in every attempt has been for 4 voices. Maybe that's wrong for me to start with a 4 voice fugue. Maybe I should start with a 3 voice fugue and then as I get better with those, add another voice, and so on.
Maybe someday, I will even write a 6 voice fugue if I love writing fugues. But currently, I'm in the phase where I have done all my counterpoint studies including the basics of a fugue, but still can't get past the exposition of the fugue. And I often find that I fall into the octave trap without even realizing it and I have like 1 instance of parallel octaves and everybody gets mad at me, even Beethoven in my head for that 1 little mistake. Bach in my head gets not just mad but very mad for that 1 little mistake with the octaves.
This usually happens because I not only think of the counterpoint rules but also my limits as a pianist(true interval limit: 9th and the occasional 10th, practical interval limit: octave, in either hand) which, you think would help me and it often does but like once I reach an octave, I often am not in a spot where I would consider using a seventh or a 9th and so I end up either leaping to a 6th, or if it seems like that would cause too much modulation(like a sudden shift to relative minor/major), I end up in the octave trap. Also, having 4 voices makes me think "Well, there has to be an octave in here somewhere for it to be consonant" and I inadvertently fall into the octave trap again because there might be more than 1 octave played simultaneously. This gets even more complicated with 5 voice and 6 voice fugues because with those, you are pretty much guaranteed to have multiple simultaneous octaves which can easily lead to parallels.
Anyway, sorry for the rant on me composing fugues. Would you consider my idea with all of the fugues in the Well Tempered Clavier and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor? Because, your quality of Bach analysis is hard to find, and even harder to find in the form of a video that isn't just a playthrough of the fugue(I often find those, videos showing the subject, countersubjects, and strettos while playing through the fugue with absolutely no explanation of the terms or how exactly these melodies are used contrapuntally). And an analysis of Bach's Fugue in C minor Book I with your quality of analysis and explanation would really help me as a beginner to fugue writing. It would be like the closest I could get to having Bach as my counterpoint teacher.
Caters Carrots I’d love to finish all 48, but we’ll see!
:D another great video.
I'm starting to understand how fugues wok, ty
Loved your idea of writing the imitation in real rather than tonal transposition
Check out the entire composition! All 13 canons are "real" transpositions.
Well done. Recommend Tchaikovsky's Suite No.1 Fugue.
One interesting contrapuntal piece is either Handel or Haydn that have fugal sections in their string quartets. This analysis and comparison was wonderful though. Keep up the hard work.
Yes, numerous Haydn quartets have fugal sections, or fugal movements.
Could you do an analysis of counterpoint in Monteverdi's Vespro Della Beata Vergine 1610 ( I find counterpoint in the Lauda Jerusalem particularly dense and hard to follow parts by ear, which usually isnt true of most counterpoint) Also I find Monteverdi's harmonic progressions very fascinating and effective but wonder how they might break voice leading or harmonic rules that crystalized by Bach's time. (Bach was born about 40 years after Monteverdis death) I know you get a lot of requests but I hope you consider this one. Thanks
Suggestion: Shostakovich Symphony no. 14, a real challenge for all: composer, player and listener. All the symphony is incredible, but in "At the Sante Prison" movement, an interesting "dodecaphonic fugue" appears. Could be a wonderful subject, all the symphony also.
Thank you for all this!
I love the Cossacks' Response movement.
Who couldn't? :))
Definition of Shostakovich's sarcasm in two minutes.
Thank you!
"Ti-tika" or "tika-ti" are 2 of the most used rhythms in Shostakovich's music. You can find them almost everywhere. I mean eighth note and 2 sixteenth notes or reverse. It can be also quarter note and 2 eighth notes and reverse or half note and 2 quarter notes and so on. But the motif you can find it very easily quite in all the symphonies and all the concertos and chamber music. In the Cossacks movement you can find it, in the rest of the symphony 14 also, but in 15, 13, 10, 9, 6, 5, 4 and ALL the others as well, in all his work. When one discovers this, it becomes very interesting...
Thank you for reading!
I would love to see these studies done on polyphonic works composed by Renaissance greats like Josquin et al.
That was great. Partially just in exposing that I have only the vaguest idea what you’re talking about. But would like to understand more. Thanks.
Past a general understanding of harmony, what would you suggest for study? Counterpoint in the style of Bach?
Plenty of counterpoint textbooks exist, and I would probably just choose the shortest one if you want an overview. There are also simpler TH-cam videos about the basics of counterpoint if you search (not created by me).
A beautiful example of a double Canon in Romantic music is Geistliches Lied by Brahms... Not quite the same I know, but still clever
Wow! This is a really good piece! oh wait...
Great video. I was wondering if you'd be interested in posting analyses of some of Richard Strauss' music. Perhaps Metamorphosen, Don Quixote, Vier letzte Lieder, or some other work?
I was planning a video on flutter-tonguing, and the sheep variation from Don Quixote is certainly one of the greatest instances of the technique.
I'll be looking forward to it. By the way, have you heard the string sextet Strauss wrote as introduction to the opera Capriccio? His use of triadic transformations in the greater context of tonality within the work is incredible- not dissimilar to that in Metamorphosen.
Genius is playing. (Thank you) Stunning music. Bach invented electricity, cars, planes and rockets. Now I know.
Would you mind sharing your strategy when composing your augmentation canon? Is there any trick or at least helpful thinking approach that gets oneself beyond simple trial and error?
It's mostly trial and error and intuition from having studied so much similar music. I think studying formal counterpoint texts is much less valuable.
Could you do an analysis of Franck's Quintet for Piano and Strings in F Minor? Or just a movement of it?
I actually don't know it that well, but I'll listen!
Would you consider analyzing the 4th movement of Beethoven's Hammerklavier?
John Chessant before Richard Does so, i highly recomend listening to András’ Schiffs “walktrough” of this sonata, guy has some serious knowledge
Someday! But I have to do the Grosse Fuge first.
Richard Atkinson The critic Joseph de Marliave wrote in 1928 that the Grosse Fuge is "one of the two works by Beethoven -- the other being the fugue from [the Hammerklavier] -- which should be excluded from performance". Hahahahaha! I can't wait to see your analyses.
Maybe that's true, but only because no performances do them justice...
Would love to see you do the complete 48. I doubt you will tho' because it is such a huge commitment. And please don't just do the fugue. Touch on the preludes and how the preludes relate to the fugues (thematically perhaps? or the figuration?). Most textbooks seem to overlook the Prelude by only saying a few sentences about it. Would also love to hear some of the pianistic challenges about them (both prelude and fugue). Yes, yes, piano for WTC is so controversial, but the old guards should just accept that harpsichord is a connoisseur instrument and the piano is the best instrument to highlight the voices and make a crystalline performance for such a multi-layered piece. Thank you, Richard!
I also have always preferred performances with piano rather than harpsichord. Strangely, in almost every other case, I prefer actual baroque instruments for baroque music. I speculate that Bach would also have preferred the pianoforte, though I don't have any real evidence to support this.
I will probably do a video on the E flat major prelude from Book I, but mainly because it's really a complex fugue!
Yes, for any other Bach's compositions, eg: the choral works, Brandenburg Concertos, where the keyboard instrument serves as an accompaniment, the harpsichord is a must. It adds to a relatively more authentic touch to the performance. But as far as the WTC, The Art of Fugue and Musikalischen Opfer, the modern piano is the superior instrument. I just get tired of reading the comments on YT about people hating the piano for Baroque. The same goes for the violin. When it comes to the Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin, I definitely prefer a more modern approach. Done with minimal vibrato but with the strength of a "modernized" Strad or Guarneri (Perlman, Ehnes). I prefer that over a more faithful violin technique (those done without chin rest, no vibrato at all, a cat-gut tone. Podger, Manze). But when it comes to the Ebarme Dich and anything else that calls for the violin, yes, an authentic Baroque violin only, please. Sorry this went long :)
Richard Atkinson I feel the same as you re playing Bach on the piano (vs harpsichord). Someone once told me (though I can't guarantee this is true) that world class 20th century harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick toward the end of his life said something to the effect that he regretted having played Bach's keyboard works on the harpsichord, that it would have been better on the piano.
@@m.calloway2624 Very Interesting. Thank you for that anecdote. I do think that harpsichord is indispensable for chamber composition such as concertos or vocal works. Its twang just works for an authentic feel for Baroque pieces. It just that for a solo keyboard pieces or the soloist of a concerto, the piano is capable of a much more nuanced coloring of tones.
I love to discover all these crazy tricks in WTC fugues; I couldn't tell which one I prefer, they all have their "personnality". Do you think the preludes are interesting to analyse too?
And thank you for the videos.
Interesting question. I would be interested to know how Bach went about composing the preludes, as there is not the rigid format of the fugue. Less to guide the composer I would imagine.
@@davidbruce7244 imagination?
Thank you so much for these videos. Though it somewhat made by brain hurt. Inversions. Augmentations. Diminutions. Stretto. Yikes!
Good analysis, but I mean it's not a full analyse. I would like a lot more details when analysing a fugue
Yes, there's much more to talk about. But that's what the comments section is for!
Please make the fugue bwv 871
Clear as a whistle. Well put. And are you spying on me? How do you know all my favorite fugues? Are you a canonical prophet?
Hi, wich programm do you use to mark all the different parts?
Could you make a analysis of the f Minor fugue of wtc 1?
I'd love to eventually have a video about each of the 48 - but until then, I'm mainly concentrating on the most complex fugues. The f minor from Book I is a pretty standard, textbook fugue - it's mainly interesting to me because of its strange, chromatic subject.
Richard Atkinson okay. I totaly understand you
Can you do a video how you compose such a canon? Not very like a tutorial but more what are the hidden secrets to compose something? :)
It's mostly trial and error and intuition from having studied so much similar music. I think studying formal counterpoint texts is much less valuable.
Hi!I want to know whether your fugue atonal?
What do you think of Mozart's K. 394 fugue?
OMG YOU DIDN'T SAY IT ENDED WITH A PICARDY THIRD
that was just a salty surprise at the end
I didn't mention that because it's such a commonplace occurrence in this kind of music that I don't at all find it surprising.
@@Richard.Atkinson I know I know I know, I like the Picardy third meme status, and memes are exactly what any great TH-camr needs, so here have my meme, I love your video's!
Just out of curiosity, out of all the fugues in the wtc, which are your favorites?
My favorites are the 4 that I have already made videos about. Another favorite I might analyze soon is the C minor from Book II. But really I like most of them.
Unbelievable.
Great video, have you thought about making a video on Bartók’s string quartets? I’m very interested in what you would have to say about his counterpoint.
Yes - soon I will make one about the finale of the 4th quartet.
Richard Atkinson yes, that one is my favorite. Can’t wait to see it!
Can you do a symphony from Cpe bach
If you can find me one that has an augmentation canon, then yes!
I don`t think any of C.P.E Bach symphony or works have much of the canonical style much less augmentation canon but if look for this type you could probably check
W.F Bach`s Symphony in F major, W.F. Bach Duets for Flute and Oboe or W.F. Bach Duets for two Flute
Do you plan on doing a video about a Brahms piece?
Yes, definitely... and soon!
Fuuuuuuuuuugues!!
Hey Richard thanks for your videos. I would love to see a harmonic analysis video of mozart. I am especially interested in Mozarts harmony in his development sections. I know most of it are simple circle of fifths modulations but it would be interesting.
I have many videos already about Mozart, and some of them briefly address this subject (though certainly not fully).
RECO !
for all the praise bach gets, i find shostakovichs fugues to be much more enjoyable. the fugue in e minor and g sharp minor op.87 are amazing
I suppose you have not time to do all Bach's work; where is it possible to learn more about the rest of WTC ?
Can you make an analyze of beethoven's gross fugue op133 that's a great piece!
I figure you have to be dead to not appreciate practically anything/everything Bach wrote!
At least if you give it a listen.
IT'S E FLAT MINOR :(
No it isn't.
@@Richard.Atkinson That's interesting actually... always thought it is E flat minor. In original manuscript the prelude is in E flat minor while fugue is in d#. I have to learn it from scratch once again ;)
3:55 An augmentation is an augmentation. You can't say it's only a half
I'm unsure what this comment means.
I'm sorry, please search for the same phrase with "augmentation" replaced with "a press"
Now I'm even more confused...
Well that's usual
An augmentation means 2 time slower. Here what bach does is approximately 1.5 times slower, I don't know if there's a standard term for that. Maybe that's what Richard meant by a half augmentation. As he explains, it is a rhythmic variant. The real augmentation comes later and respects the rhythmic pattern of the main subject, only it's 2 times slower. All in all, this fugue combines 6 variants of the theme. It's incredibly expressive, very moving, sometimes rather playful (the frolicks of the baseline towards the end) and you tend to overlook the fact that it's extremely complex.
I'm not a fan of the interpretation. Too light for the mood.
Please, my ears bleed from the sound you make while talking. Do you have to articulate every letter like a robot?
"Do you have to articulate every letter like a robot?"
This video contained the word "Mensuration." Of course I have to articulate every letter!