I've heard this story behind Bach's Brandenburg concertos. In 1721, Bach composed six “concertos for various instruments”. He dedicated them to a German nobleman and sent the manuscript as a gift, hoping to land a job as the court composer in Brandenburg. The nobleman never replied. Bach eventually took another job in Leipzig, where he lived for the rest of his life. The 6 concertos were lost for 130 years. They were never performed. The manuscript was eventually sold for about $20 and shelved in a library. The Brandenburg Concertos sat there until 1849, when they were discovered and published for the first time.
I can't imagine this monstruous beauty not having been performed in Bach's time, what an injustice! I wonder if he ever heard these concertos played with an orchestra, as rehearsal at least. When you listen to them you really feel like you're being enveloped and transported to heaven, they are really one of the world's greatest wonders!
@@melinarodriguez8395 The story he "heard" is 19th-century BS that continues to be regurgitated ad nauseam by people who don't know better. Bach reused the music from his supposedly lost "Brandenburg concertos" in his Leipzig cantatas. The so-called Brandenburgs are merely minor updates to concertos composed for, or at least performed by, the capella of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Koethen, when Bach was his Kapellmeister (1717-1723). Furthermore, there are other copies of the music. E.g., there are about a dozen versions of #5. In the 1730s, when Bach was director of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, they performed an arrangement of #4 in which he replaced the solo violin with harpsichord (BWV 1057).
@@herrickinman9303 Thank you for the interesting information; I'm gonna check the cantatas! We're so lucky that this music survived and didn't get lost!
When you were talking at the end about memorizing it I was reminded of my piano teacher. She went to the Paris Conservatory of Music. She said she would never perform Bach by memory. If you get lost in Bach it’s hard to find your way back and it happened to her in a concert at the Conservatory. She had no problem with Chopin, Mozart or Beethoven but Bach is another story. I’m always amazed at the memory exhibited by virtuoso performers. There’s a pianist that did a series of performances in Berlin where he performed everyone one of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, all 35 of them by memory. It took me a year to memorize one of them and at no where near the level of a professional.
I've performed Bach by memory. My teacher told me to memorize the entire piece so that I could start from any measure in the piece. I only pulled that feat off with one Bach piece, though. For the rest of them I had memory points I could jump to.
If you’re going to do a week of Bach I’d like to suggest you include the Chaconne in D minor for solo violin. Incredible piece of music. First time I heard it I thought it was two violins playing. Violinist Hillary Hahn does a wonderful performance of it.
@@annep.1905 He did. He also played it live on the BBC. The entire 2nd partita, not just the Chaconne. I still agree with the original commenter. Hilary's performance is definitive. I've never heard another violinist who can make all the voices speak so clearly. It's just stunning.
I had the most wonderful teacher in junior high school, our Orchestra Director Daniel J. Carbone. He had us playing (school level versions) of this and other amazing pieces, Nachtmusik, Canon in D, Hummel, I'm sure we were terrible. But he believed, and treated us as if we played at this level. So we believed it as well. Bach is so mathematical and balanced. It is fascinating to be in the middle of it and listen to the theme and dominance move from group to group. It's been 40 years since I picked up my violin (shame on me!) but I can still play the first 10-12 bars of the second violin part. 😁 (First Chair!) Rest in Peace, Mr. Carbone. Enjoy the heavenly orchestra, and thank you for changing my life with your love of music. 🥰
The mechanics are different between a piano and a harpsichord. In a piano little hammers hit the strings and in a harpsichord little hooks pull the strings. The Brandenburg concerti were Bach's worldly compositions when he was employed by some noble person but most of his life he was employed by the church and his job was to compose new pieces of religious music like hymns for every Sunday service. He also conducted a boys choir for the church. The boys also had to pump air into the pipes by pedalling the bellows while he was playing the organ. Have you come across some of his vocal pieces yet ? In my younger years I used to sing in a huge choir in Northern Germany and we performed some of his oratories ( the most famous probably the Christmas oratory and the St. Matthews Passion) besides Motettes and pieces of other great composers. I just subscribed and am looking forward to your upcoming videos. I keep my fingers crossed for you to get lots of subscribers so even more people can experience that 'classic' music rocks !
BTW they're all playing period instruments, which is why there are no chin rests on the violins. They use the rags to keep the sweat off probably. You'll even notice a couple of them don't put their chin all of the way down all of the time. The reason why the orchestra is so small is because of the time period. This predates large orchestras which you saw in Beethoven's later life. Much of Baroque is chamber music. There are some orchestral suites that consist of larger groups, still nothing like you see in later symphony orchestras
Information for you: -Concerto: So there are two types of concerti. The Baroque Concerto Grosso was really just a piece for orchestra, but would sometimes feature one or more soloists. By the Classical period, through the Romantic Era and up to the modern period, a concerto is a soloists versus and orchestra (e.g. the Beethoven Violin Concerto, which is a piece that features solo violin accompanied by an Orchestra). -The Upright and Frets: There's some history here. So, before the violin family (violins, violas, cellos, and bass) was a thing, there were instruments called "viols," which had a different shape and were always held with the legs (like a cello without an endpin). These were tuned like guitars and were meant to accompany singers in a small little room (kind of like a little jam session). To make sure the viol was in tune, they would tie strings (which were animal gut strings, not modern steel strings) around the fingerboard to make frets. The did this instead of laying frets into the instrument so you could adjust the tuning of the frets when you needed to. This was before our modern universal tuning system was in place (called "equal temperament"), so you would need to adjust your frets based on what key you were playing in. However, when music started to be performed for larger audiences, the violin family took over because they were louder and could project better. However, the double bass (aka the upright bass) hadn't been fully invented, so instead, they used the lowest bass viol called a "violone" (not a violin). They were able to get away with this because the point of a bass most of the time isn't to be heard, but to be felt and the violone was able to do that well enough. So Bach's music calls for a violone. If the group is using modern instruments instead of replica historical instruments (which is what this recording used), they will usually just do this part on both a cello and a double bass, but this group opted to use a violone and to put frets on it like it was a viol instead of having a smooth fingerboard like a violin. -The word "Baroque": So the word is French and is pronounced "ba-ROKE", not like President Obama's first name. -The End of the Baroque Era So, eras are a thing historians do, not really a reality. Like, composers weren't like, "Shit, it's January 1, 1751. We have to stop writing concerti grossi and start writing symphonies." It's more spread out over time. By way of analogy, the Clash is considered an 80s band, but they released their first album in 1979. Nonetheless, you would never think of the Clash as a 70s band. However, as Bach and Handel, the two icons of the late Baroque era and the last two to really engage that dense late baroque counterpoint, both dies in 1750, most historians consider this to be the end of the Baroque era. Everyone else at this point was writing in the "Stile Galant" or "Rococo" style, which was more of the melody and accompaniment style that eventually formed the backbone of the Classical Era. -Finally, Bach vs. Mozart Okay, so Mozart was, and I mean this lovingly, a freak of nature. He wrote all of his music in pen because he had figured out the entire piece before even bothering to write it down. Like, he even knew what note the 2nd clarinet player would have in bar 44 (and no one cares about the 2nd clarinet). He almost got in trouble with the Vatican as a child because the Vatican forbade anyone from having their sheet music, but he had seen a performance and wrote down the piece he heard FROM MEMORY. Do you know which composer Mozart studied? J.S. Bach. Beethoven? Studied Bach. Every composer, every musical genius since J.S. Bach has studied Bach because they all recognize that Bach is The Master. P.S., I sent you an email about the Bach reactions. Y'all should check the business email and get back to me.
Size of the orchestra is more related to the time the piece was written. Prior to the piano's invention in late 18th Century, music was generally played by, & written for small groups of musicians. By turn of 19th Century, most was written for full orchestras--except for "chamber music" (meant to be played by 1-6 instruments in a small room).
It also depends on the rooms where you can actually have such a full orchestra, because usually "nobility & royalty" were the ones who had the money to pay for musicians, but even they typically only had a "regular (but large) room" and not one with a rising stage for the orchestra ... and even then there is the question of acoustics, which becomes more complicated with more instruments.
In a world where the greatest mastery in music is ignored, its a refresher to see you guys reacting to it and keeping it alive. I would suggest Bach pieces, but there are thousands you probably can easily find by typing BWV + random # between 1 and 1000. I recommend Beethovens Grosse Fuge as it is quite a mind fuck to where people completely hated it and thought he had officially lost it at the time, while he considered it one of his greatest works. Looking forward to more Classical and Baroque reactions.
I always get so much joy watching the two of you explore the music that I have loved for so long. It really refreshes it for me and reminds me why my soul needs classical music. Thanks.
The Upright Bass has frets made of sheep gut (or synthetic gut) because of some fast passages and you can move them to change the note temperament. The violins, violas etc etc strings are made of sheep gut too (or synthetic gut) because they are from the baroque era
It's a violone, not an "Upright Bass." A violine is a member of the viola da gamba family. The frets are normally positioned in equal temperament. A temperament is a tuning system that sacrifices the purity of just intonation to achieve other objectives; there's no such thing as changing "note temperament." Frets can be adjusted to make it easier to play enharmonics, especially the fret closest to the nut. But the main reason frets are adjusted is to compensate for the fact that gut strings get sharper as they age. Gut strings were still in use in the early 20th century. The sound of gut strings was preferred over metal. The concertmaster of a major philharmonic orchestra continued to use gut strings until his retirement in the 60s. During WWI, the demand for surgical gut in the field and the disruption of commerce made quality gut for strings scarce, and string players began using metal strings. Synthetic gut strings (nylon) sound nothing like real gut strings.
The frets on the violone are made of gut just like the strings. They are tied on and used a bit differently than on a guitar. It's great to see a Bach reaction. Yhank you!
About the padding you see on the violins and violas: this is a Baroque orchestra playing period instruments. The chinrest was not added until some time around 1800. (For context: in 1800 Bach had been dead for 50 years, Mozart had been dead for 8 years, and Beethoven was writing his first symphony.) Before that, violinists and violists just put a thick cloth between their jaw and the instrument. The word "concerto" has evolved over time. In the early Baroque era, it meant any piece with multiple movements for an instrumental ensemble. (Concertare = to come together.) Around 1700, composers started writing concertos for soloist with orchestra to display a virtuoso's skill, and from there the solo concerto became a separate genre from the concerto grosso ("big concerto"). The concerto grosso fell out of favor when the symphony became a standard form in the Classical era, but the solo concerto stuck around and that's why "concerto" refers to a piece for a soloist with orchestra today. (The concerto grosso made a bit of a comeback in the 20th century, with composers starting to write them to display the virtuosity of an entire orchestra. But modern examples are often titled "Concerto for Orchestra" which more or less means the same thing.) By the way, I think a reaction video for a solo concerto would be fun. There's a lot of great ones to choose from.
So the piece of cloth that some violin and viola players use can be to protect the instrument from sweat, but it can also be to "protect" the skin on your neck because a piece of cloth is nicer than the bits and pieces that can stick out of a violin. I also know violinists who use a piece of cloth instead of a shoulder rest. For your question about the concerto, there's two types. There's the solo concerto, where there's one player, the soloist, who plays parts on their own, sometimes completely alone, sometimes accompanied by the orchestra. This is the type of concerto where people speak about a "violin concerto", "piano concerto", "bassoon concerto", ... There are also concertos "for violin and cello" or "violin and piano" and so on. As far as I know, these are also considered soli concerti because you truly have those one or two or three soloists. The second type is the "concerto grosso". In this type, there's a lot of soloists, who all have a part or parts where they play something else than the rest of the orchestra/play alone. The Brandenburg concerti are concerti grossi. As for the size of the orchestras, that mostly has to do with the history of orchestras and musical instruments in different musical periods. In baroque, orchestras are usually string orchestras with a harpsichord or a similar instrument. Wood and brass instruments aren't a standard part of the orchestra. In the classical period, woodwinds and horns and the like become a standard part of orchestras. (If you listen to Mozart or Haydn symphonies, you'll definitely notice them.) And then in the romantic era, more brass and percussion instruments became standard parts of the symphonic orchestra. In that time, they also liked to make the orchestras bigger and bigger (and the symphonies and pieces longer and longer - several Mahler symphonies are over an hour long). I hope this clears things up!
@@grandmak. True, but the majority of orchestral music (at least what I know) doesn't have (much) brass and percussion. I'm not an expert, but I assume that also depends on genre.
@@grandmak. I meant the majority of baroque orchestral music, and those aren't called symphony orchestras (at least not in Dutch). Anyway, I certainly didn't mean to imply there's no brass or percussion in baroque or classical. Only that the orchestras were smaller and their role was also often smaller back then. This is what I learned i my classes and what I know from listening/playing, but to be fair, I'm a violinist, so half the baroque orchestral music I know are violin concertos and a few other concertos (plus a few masses and operas). Of course there are baroque pieces where brass plays a major role, but I don't know any compositions where you'd have 10 brass players, as you need for some romantic pieces.
@@birthe9439 that's right of course. I think Händel might be another exception but most of the other composers of the Baroque had smaller orchestras, I agree.
Interesting fact: the first movement of the 2nd concerto was chosen as the first musical piece to be played on the Voyager Golden Record, a phonograph record containing a broad sample of Earth's common sounds, languages, and music sent into outer space with the two Voyager probes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record
I listened to the whole musical section of the Golden Record, and I mostly agreed with every choice. I wasn't familiar with a lot of the non Western music, but I could really enjoy the variety and quality. An interesting compilation for sure.
A concerto is an orchestral piece that features a particular instrument as the soloist.. such as a piano concerto, or an oboe concerto... or trumpet or flute. The Brandenburg concertos, on the other hand, are in a form known as "Concerto Grosso", where instead of a single solo instrument, a group of instruments is featured. This particular concerto (number 3) features, 3 violins, three violas, three cellos with basso continuo (the bass and harpsichord - equivalent to the modern-day rhythm section of a jazz combo). In fact, in this particular concerto, there is no supporting orchestra behind the soloists (except for the continuo). They all get their own individual/independent part. Brandenburg number 2, for example, features Trumpet, Flute, Violin, and Oboe as soloists, with strings and continuo as accompaniment.
This was one of my first pieces that got me into classical music, I heard a synthesized version in my teens and it made me want to hear the orchestral version. A far as [Br owk] vs [Br ock], my understanding is this is a difference of American and British English (though I may be wrong). What I can tell you as someone who has a degree in music from America is that no one at my school ever said 'Barock' including the professors. So you are fine saying it however it makes you happy.
That unique sound of the harpsichord versus the piano is because in a harpsichord the strings are "plucked" when you press a key instead of being "struck" as in a piano.
You can definitely memorize this music. I played both violin and viola during different years in high school, and even many decades later, I can remember much of 2 - 3 parts like I played it just yesterday. If memory serves correctly, this part of Brandenburg #3 starts allegro, and the second part is allegretto (much faster tempo). You practice it so much (especially with this!) that it writes itself onto your memory, long-term. As far as this former chamber musician is concerned, JS Bach IS the greatest composer ever, and I'd played (or sang) hundreds of composers' music over the years, (including Vivaldi, Telemann, Handel, Corelli, Haydn, Pachelbel, Scarlatti, Mozart, Salieri, Beethoven, Rossini, Schubert, Berlioz, Wagnet, Dvorak, Britten, Debussy, Mussgorsky, Satie, Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, etc...). There is just something about Bach's music that indelibly records itself onto my brain like virtually no other composer. Of course, it didn't hurt that this particular piece was such a fun challenge to play, and a joy to perform. Do some research on JS Bach, - he was amazing, the man churned out excellent music like a machine. (Vivaldi is another favorite and genius of Baroque music, fun and challenging to play, his works are definitely worth a listen.) It is BarOque, I'd never heard "BaRock" as a pronunciation, not once, ever, prior to the mention just now. Old English is a Germanic language (although the spelling looks influened by French), and I just cannot see how you'd derive Barak from that spelling. You mentioning this is the first time I'd ever heard such a thing in my long in the tooth existence. I am not currently playing, and haven't played with an orchestra for many years, but most beginner string players learn to play with 4 thin strips of tape on the finger boards under the strings that serve as temporary frets until students begin to develop muscle memory and no longer need them. (Or at least violinists, violists, and cellists don't.) Some double bass players sometimes did leave a piece (or two) of tape on their fingerboards as a quick reference to use because the fingerboard is so large it is easy to get lost without a jumping off point, especially on fast, acrobatic pieces of music. While I am not familiar with the particular device this bassist uses, the concept is probably still similar to the tape that beginners use on most fretless classical string instruments. There are chin and shoulder pads for use with violins and violas, and the wooden or plastic chin rest piece can also be changed out as well. Some players also do use a piece of cloth. Rather like some guitar players use picks, and some can't stand them.
Baroque came to English from the French word barroque, meaning ´irregularly shaped’ so the word is French and in French it is pronounced as Baro QUE as is rock
About the towels that the two listeners mentioned: Baroque period violins and violas do not have built-in chin rests. The towels protect the instruments from the musicians' sweat and makes it more comfortable to hold them against their necks.
I think I've heard 'bachmanity " from the tv show "Silicon Valley". And the next comment about the Pied piper t-shirt is kind of confirmed that it is definitely from that show. ))) Anyway, it good video as always. Keep it up! I would love to see reaction from the 5 and the 6 Brandenburg concerto as well. However, anything from Bach would be fantastic!
This is a period instrument performance. The ensemble is using instruments of Bach's time or reconstructions of such instruments. What you're calling a "chin pad" is a _chin rest._ What you're calling an "upright bass" is a 16' _violone._ What you think are "rubber bands" are _frets_ similar to the frets on a guitar. The frets on a violone are adjustable and made of gut string, not rubber bands. The 3 string players on the right that you think are playing violins are playing violas, not violins. (A viola is larger than a violin and tuned a 5th lower.) This concerto is scored for 3 violins (not 6 violins), 3 violas, 3 cellos and a continuo group consisting of harpsichord and violone. It should be obvious that this is NOT a concerto for a single soloist. It's a concerto with multiple soloists . At times, some members of the ensemble stand out as soloists; at other times they don't. No, the harpsichordist is not a soloist. The left hand of the harpsichordist merely doubles the bass line; the right hand improvises a simple chordal accompaniment. Look up _continuo._ I have no idea what you think medieval music sounds like, but the motif you think sounds "medieval" doesn't sound even remotely medieval. That motif is derived from 2nd and 3rd measures of the main theme. The concerto was composed for private performance in a princely chamber, not for public performance in a concert hall. Stop trying to understand this early 18th-century concerto as if it were a late 18th- or 19th-century orchestral work for the concert hall. It's chamber music, not orchestral music. All the so-called Brandenburg Concertos are merely minor updates to concertos originally composed for, or at least performed by, the musicians at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Koethen, when Bach was the prince's Kapellmeister (1717-1723). When Bach prepared the "Brandenburg" versions for dedication to the Margrave of Brandenburg (the Prussian king's brother) in 1721, he simply reused the Koethen wrapper. The story that poor little Bach's Brandenburg Concertos were never performed is nonsense when you understand (1) the origin of the works and (2) the fact that the Margrave lacked the resources to perform them. Bach didn't call them Brandenburg Concertos. He called them "Six Concertos for Diverse Instruments." Contrary to popular misconceptions about these works, they were never lost; in later years Bach reused several movements of some of these concertos in his Leipzig cantatas, and there were multiple copies and versions. E.g., there are 13 manuscript copies and several versions of #5; in the oldest version of #5, the principal violin and flute parts of the 1st movement do not have the familiar triplets.
If you want to take a look at harpsichord songs in the future, I highly recommend glancing at The Goldberg Variations BWV 988, the Keyboard Partitas BWV 825-830, and maybe even the "English" Suites BWV 806-811. The Netherlands Bach Society has many harpsichord recordings, including the Goldberg Variations, some of the Partitas, and at least some of the English Suites.
Those frets you see on the bass are gut. That's how period basses are set up. You take a piece of gut and tie it really tight and melt the ends so it doesn't come undone. This piece is actually a concerto grosso which means group concerto which was a very popular form in Bach's time. So a small group of instruments makes up the concert and the larger group is the ripieno.
If you try melting real gut you will create a really terrible stench and not much else. Artificial gut is created most often using nylon, so will melt as you describe, but obviously was not used in traditional instrument setup - the reason people knew their knots much better in the past is that there were no cheats like melting available. But artificial gut is not really an accurate representation of the sound you get from the real thing (although it is close enough for learning up to the entry of a paid professional standard). The downsides of real (sheep) gut are cost and longevity. Cost is very high because of the labour-intensive production methods needed, and is increased by the need for fairly frequent replacement - if the instrument gets as much use as any professional like these would subject it to, several sets per year, at a cost of around $120 per set for the smallest and most common of the strings - the violin. I'm not familiar with the equivalent for a cello or double bass, but it will be scaled up in approximate proportion to their size.
A concerto with one main solo instrument could be a piano concerto or a violin concerto where the solo instrument and the orchestra play alternately but this is a piece of chamber music with a smaller orchestra. 'Concertare' (Latin) just means playing together.
An interesting reaction to have would be the last Contrapunctus of Die Kunst der Fuge. It's incredibly complex, 8 minutes long, and unfinished, as Bach died before he was able to finish it. the sudden silence at the end is incredible. Also the frets on the contrabass are the same material as the strings, sheep gut, and they are tied around. They can be moved around to fit the temperament.
Those things you called elastic bands, are called gut frets, they are tied on. Which also explains how the strings look, because they too are gut. The reason why it's smaller is not because its a concerto, its because you're listening to a baroque orchestra and baroque orchestras were generally small, orchestras didn't get bigger till the classical period, then got massive in the romantic.
Since you enjoy the harpsichord, try Concerto in D minor or Concerto for Four Harpsichords in A minor are both amazing pieces. To answer your comment about the solo instruments, Bach was a very mathematical guy. He would sometimes doodle math on his scores. In this concerto, Brandenburg concerto number 3, there are 3 groups of 3 solo instruments, so all the players are technically solo instruments in this concerto. Even in the beginning melody, you can hear the distinct “G, F#, G” three times. After that, another scale-like melody happens three times. But yes, please check out Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor. You can go to the youtube channel Gerubach to see the score alongside music.
Actually that wasn’t rubber bands, that’s old gut strings that are attached to the neck of the double bass to make frets, but I think only in baroque instruments or interpretation they do that
Actually, it's a violone, not a double bass, and what you're calling "the neck of the double bass" is called a fingerboard. All string instruments have a fingerboard. The fretted violone dates back to the 16th century. It's a member of the viola da gamba family. Instruments in the viola da gamba family have frets because they were derived from a Renaissance guitar. In Elizabethan times, the English called a violone "the great bass."
I particularly like the 2nd Brandenburg Concerto. Another concerto I really like is the concerto grosso in a minor, no. 8, op 3 for two violins by Antonio Vivaldi. Even more than the Four Seasons.
Notice there's no conductor. This was normal in Bach's time. Back then, conductors were for rehearsals. The first violin was often in charge of tuning and getting the orchestra started together, or it might be the harpsichordist who was often in front where everyone else could see him. The Baroque concerto form usually called for three movements (the other five Brandenburgs have three) but the Bach didn't write a second movement for the 3rd Brandenburg, apparently, he expected the players to improvise a second movement.
The Baroque Bass Viol has gut frets that the maker puts on but the player can adjust and replace them, and the violin/viola players used towels because period instruments didn't have chin rests yet, and these are all very old instruments. Even the bows look and are held differently. This sort of music was often written on commission for the Noble host to be played by their guests at social gatherings - a noble may have a small orchestra and friends and family would play their own or borrowed instruments, some guests would dance and some would just watch and socialize. I love the 3rd Brandenburg most especially because its so damn joyful...I can't listen to it and not smile :) @MrYuryZ's comment tells the history nicely
Pronunciation: I don't know about the word Baroque specifically, but I do know there was something called "The Great Vowel Shift" between 1400 and 1700. A LOT of words we use now were pronounced very differently before then. It's possible people are interested in returning to pronouncing 'baroque' as Bach and his contemporaries would have pronounced it. This concerto is like a briskly flowing river to me, undulating smoothly and pleasantly yet with strength and power. Carries me away.
Harpsichord strings are plucked when a key is pushed. A piano strings are struck with a padded hammer. Hence, harpsichords are strong instruments; pianos are considered percussion instruments.
There are not 6 violins, there are 3 violins and 3 violas and 3 cellos and 1 double bass. The 3 on the left that sound higher are the violinists playing the violins. The 3 on the right that sound lower and deeper but not as low as the 3 in the middle that are the cellos are the violists playing the viola. The viola is a string instrument belonging to the violin family but isn't a violin, it is tuned a fifth lower.
A concerto is a composition that has two or three movements, such as thst music you recently listened to be Bach. Pronounce the h not c. The a is the same as a short o. How I know this is because I'm a perfectionist and genius. Language is additionally exceedingly important to me. Besides that, I want to help people. In the event that you want to learn much more about music, you need to trust people. In addition to that, I never want to lie to any other people.
Bah r-AH-'k and Bah r-OH-'k are both correct. The first is British English, and the other is American English. However, the word is French, so we're both mistaken.
A concerto is a piece written to feature a lead instrument. try a Violin concerto by Tchichosvsky or a piano concerto by Beethoven Sometimes you will find a Double concerto featuring two leads. And yes. even Triple concertos. Never heard of Barak. like the Obama, no it is Broke. like go for broke.
A bit late maybe but if you're doing a Bach series you should include Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. Here it is Karl Richter's version which happens to be my personal favourite: th-cam.com/video/_W4PJUOeVYw/w-d-xo.html. Another great recording is Helmut Walcha's: th-cam.com/video/ymGO89N7Nu8/w-d-xo.html (Passacaglia) - th-cam.com/video/BvYbNlgjIAg/w-d-xo.html (fugue) - Walcha recorded Bach's complete organ works twice, one time in mono and one in stereo, which I linked. Not to be forgotten, Leopold Stokowski's transcription for orchestra: th-cam.com/video/x9Sbk3E8-ws/w-d-xo.html.
Allegro means “lively”. A concerto generally means there is a solo instrument, BUT occasionally a concerto can mean something else. In the case of the Brandenburg concertos, it is definitely more vague of a concept. Definitely “barrock” pronunciation.
I think if you’re going to do classical music you should hear something virtuosic that makes you go “WOW how is that even possible!?” like maybe Rachmaninov piano concerto n2 or Mendelssohn violin concerto
Whenever a person is playing a violin, their chin and neck will sweat. This isn't exactly the problem. What is is that they're playing quite the old instruments. They don't want to have those chin rests deteriorating. That's the reason for those clothes between them.
I never heard it pronounced any way except Bar-OHK, and honestly it doesn't make sense that the O would be short. All the rules of English would require the O to be the long O, not the short one.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, both are correct! It's just that one is more "English" and the other closer to French, German, Italian and so on.
The name of Bach is not pronounced like the "bok" in bok choy. The _ch_ is like the _ch_ in Ach, Bach. Not awk, bok. And the _a_ in Johann is not like the _a_ in man; it's like the _o_ in Jon, but shorter.
It's amusing how the clueless hosts bob their heads as they try to process the early 18th-century music they're hearing as if it was contemporary pop music or "get down" music.
You guys have to get a better recording of this. The audio is terrible. For your edification there are 6 Brandenburg Concertos, it is said that if these were the only 6 pieces of music that Bach wrote he would still be the greatest composer of all time.
The guy on the left doesn't know what to make of this music. He's clueless. He listens to an early 18th-century concerto as if he were listening to rock or pop music. Notice he bobs his head. He doesn't even know the difference between a harp and a harpsichord.
No, they're lying to the two of you. I'm thinking you're joking with us watcher's this video. You know it's pronounced ba roak. The actual word is baroque.
Also, I think it's a shame that the camera people didn't focus on the violist when that person had a rare moment when a violist gets to have the spotlight. It happens twice here; at 10:50 and again at 12:36. It's the string in the middle register that solos for just a couple of seconds. I think it's the person on the far right of the stage. @@GetSidewaysReacts
I like the idea of Baroque having sounded somewhat similar to it’s predecessor - the era was based on canonical music which led its way to contrapuntal music
@@paulmusyk4lyfe51 OMG. Get a clue: Clue #1: The Baroque (~1600-1750) was preceded by the Renaissance (~1400 to ~1600), not the Middle Ages (~500 to ~1500). Clue #2: Neither the music of the Renaissance nor the music of Middle Ages "was based on canonical music." Clue #3: Canon did not "led its way to contrapuntal music." A canon is itself a contrapuntal composition. Clue #4: There's nothing remotely "medieval" about this early 18th-century concerto, which is an example of a composition from the Late Baroque, not the middle or early Baroque, not the Renaissance, and not the Middle Ages. Clue #5: Bach didn't invent counterpoint. Composers were using counterpoint centuries before Bach was born.
johncollins. Such a short line is as worthless as the «too fast» or «too slow.» Please give us a rationale - why is this version so bad in many ways? I’m not asking about your personal taste, because it’s uninteresting - tell us what you know, thank you.
I've heard this story behind Bach's Brandenburg concertos. In 1721, Bach composed six “concertos for various instruments”. He dedicated them to a German nobleman and sent the manuscript as a gift, hoping to land a job as the court composer in Brandenburg. The nobleman never replied. Bach eventually took another job in Leipzig, where he lived for the rest of his life. The 6 concertos were lost for 130 years. They were never performed. The manuscript was eventually sold for about $20 and shelved in a library. The Brandenburg Concertos sat there until 1849, when they were discovered and published for the first time.
I can't imagine this monstruous beauty not having been performed in Bach's time, what an injustice! I wonder if he ever heard these concertos played with an orchestra, as rehearsal at least. When you listen to them you really feel like you're being enveloped and transported to heaven, they are really one of the world's greatest wonders!
Coudn't agree more! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May God bless you and your loved ones! @@melinarodriguez8395
@@melinarodriguez8395 The story he "heard" is 19th-century BS that continues to be regurgitated ad nauseam by people who don't know better. Bach reused the music from his supposedly lost "Brandenburg concertos" in his Leipzig cantatas. The so-called Brandenburgs are merely minor updates to concertos composed for, or at least performed by, the capella of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Koethen, when Bach was his Kapellmeister (1717-1723). Furthermore, there are other copies of the music. E.g., there are about a dozen versions of #5. In the 1730s, when Bach was director of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, they performed an arrangement of #4 in which he replaced the solo violin with harpsichord (BWV 1057).
@@MrYuryZ Thank you! ♥️ I hope this 2024 is a great year for you!
@@herrickinman9303 Thank you for the interesting information; I'm gonna check the cantatas! We're so lucky that this music survived and didn't get lost!
When you were talking at the end about memorizing it I was reminded of my piano teacher. She went to the Paris Conservatory of Music. She said she would never perform Bach by memory. If you get lost in Bach it’s hard to find your way back and it happened to her in a concert at the Conservatory. She had no problem with Chopin, Mozart or Beethoven but Bach is another story. I’m always amazed at the memory exhibited by virtuoso performers. There’s a pianist that did a series of performances in Berlin where he performed everyone one of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, all 35 of them by memory. It took me a year to memorize one of them and at no where near the level of a professional.
I've performed Bach by memory. My teacher told me to memorize the entire piece so that I could start from any measure in the piece. I only pulled that feat off with one Bach piece, though. For the rest of them I had memory points I could jump to.
If you’re going to do a week of Bach I’d like to suggest you include the Chaconne in D minor for solo violin. Incredible piece of music. First time I heard it I thought it was two violins playing. Violinist Hillary Hahn does a wonderful performance of it.
Nah, use the Heifetz recording. No one beats Heifetz.
Lol, the duel of the "best."
I wonder if Perlman made a recording of it.
@@annep.1905 He did. He also played it live on the BBC. The entire 2nd partita, not just the Chaconne. I still agree with the original commenter. Hilary's performance is definitive. I've never heard another violinist who can make all the voices speak so clearly. It's just stunning.
@@dmwalker24 💖
I had the most wonderful teacher in junior high school, our Orchestra Director Daniel J. Carbone.
He had us playing (school level versions) of this and other amazing pieces, Nachtmusik, Canon in D, Hummel, I'm sure we were terrible. But he believed, and treated us as if we played at this level. So we believed it as well.
Bach is so mathematical and balanced. It is fascinating to be in the middle of it and listen to the theme and dominance move from group to group.
It's been 40 years since I picked up my violin (shame on me!) but I can still play the first 10-12 bars of the second violin part. 😁 (First Chair!)
Rest in Peace, Mr. Carbone. Enjoy the heavenly orchestra, and thank you for changing my life with your love of music. 🥰
The mechanics are different between a piano and a harpsichord. In a piano little hammers hit the strings and in a harpsichord little hooks pull the strings.
The Brandenburg concerti were Bach's worldly compositions when he was employed by some noble person but most of his life he was employed by the church and his job was to compose new pieces of religious music like hymns for every Sunday service. He also conducted a boys choir for the church. The boys also had to pump air into the pipes by pedalling the bellows while he was playing the organ.
Have you come across some of his vocal pieces yet ? In my younger years I used to sing in a huge choir in Northern Germany and we performed some of his oratories ( the most famous probably the Christmas oratory and the St. Matthews Passion) besides Motettes and pieces of other great composers.
I just subscribed and am looking forward to your upcoming videos. I keep my fingers crossed for you to get lots of subscribers so even more people can experience that 'classic' music rocks !
BTW they're all playing period instruments, which is why there are no chin rests on the violins. They use the rags to keep the sweat off probably. You'll even notice a couple of them don't put their chin all of the way down all of the time.
The reason why the orchestra is so small is because of the time period. This predates large orchestras which you saw in Beethoven's later life. Much of Baroque is chamber music. There are some orchestral suites that consist of larger groups, still nothing like you see in later symphony orchestras
Information for you:
-Concerto:
So there are two types of concerti. The Baroque Concerto Grosso was really just a piece for orchestra, but would sometimes feature one or more soloists. By the Classical period, through the Romantic Era and up to the modern period, a concerto is a soloists versus and orchestra (e.g. the Beethoven Violin Concerto, which is a piece that features solo violin accompanied by an Orchestra).
-The Upright and Frets:
There's some history here. So, before the violin family (violins, violas, cellos, and bass) was a thing, there were instruments called "viols," which had a different shape and were always held with the legs (like a cello without an endpin). These were tuned like guitars and were meant to accompany singers in a small little room (kind of like a little jam session). To make sure the viol was in tune, they would tie strings (which were animal gut strings, not modern steel strings) around the fingerboard to make frets. The did this instead of laying frets into the instrument so you could adjust the tuning of the frets when you needed to. This was before our modern universal tuning system was in place (called "equal temperament"), so you would need to adjust your frets based on what key you were playing in.
However, when music started to be performed for larger audiences, the violin family took over because they were louder and could project better. However, the double bass (aka the upright bass) hadn't been fully invented, so instead, they used the lowest bass viol called a "violone" (not a violin). They were able to get away with this because the point of a bass most of the time isn't to be heard, but to be felt and the violone was able to do that well enough. So Bach's music calls for a violone. If the group is using modern instruments instead of replica historical instruments (which is what this recording used), they will usually just do this part on both a cello and a double bass, but this group opted to use a violone and to put frets on it like it was a viol instead of having a smooth fingerboard like a violin.
-The word "Baroque":
So the word is French and is pronounced "ba-ROKE", not like President Obama's first name.
-The End of the Baroque Era
So, eras are a thing historians do, not really a reality. Like, composers weren't like, "Shit, it's January 1, 1751. We have to stop writing concerti grossi and start writing symphonies." It's more spread out over time. By way of analogy, the Clash is considered an 80s band, but they released their first album in 1979. Nonetheless, you would never think of the Clash as a 70s band.
However, as Bach and Handel, the two icons of the late Baroque era and the last two to really engage that dense late baroque counterpoint, both dies in 1750, most historians consider this to be the end of the Baroque era. Everyone else at this point was writing in the "Stile Galant" or "Rococo" style, which was more of the melody and accompaniment style that eventually formed the backbone of the Classical Era.
-Finally, Bach vs. Mozart
Okay, so Mozart was, and I mean this lovingly, a freak of nature. He wrote all of his music in pen because he had figured out the entire piece before even bothering to write it down. Like, he even knew what note the 2nd clarinet player would have in bar 44 (and no one cares about the 2nd clarinet). He almost got in trouble with the Vatican as a child because the Vatican forbade anyone from having their sheet music, but he had seen a performance and wrote down the piece he heard FROM MEMORY.
Do you know which composer Mozart studied? J.S. Bach. Beethoven? Studied Bach. Every composer, every musical genius since J.S. Bach has studied Bach because they all recognize that Bach is The Master.
P.S., I sent you an email about the Bach reactions. Y'all should check the business email and get back to me.
Size of the orchestra is more related to the time the piece was written. Prior to the piano's invention in late 18th Century, music was generally played by, & written for small groups of musicians. By turn of 19th Century, most was written for full orchestras--except for "chamber music" (meant to be played by 1-6 instruments in a small room).
It also depends on the rooms where you can actually have such a full orchestra, because usually "nobility & royalty" were the ones who had the money to pay for musicians, but even they typically only had a "regular (but large) room" and not one with a rising stage for the orchestra ... and even then there is the question of acoustics, which becomes more complicated with more instruments.
In a world where the greatest mastery in music is ignored, its a refresher to see you guys reacting to it and keeping it alive. I would suggest Bach pieces, but there are thousands you probably can easily find by typing BWV + random # between 1 and 1000. I recommend Beethovens Grosse Fuge as it is quite a mind fuck to where people completely hated it and thought he had officially lost it at the time, while he considered it one of his greatest works. Looking forward to more Classical and Baroque reactions.
I always get so much joy watching the two of you explore the music that I have loved for so long. It really refreshes it for me and reminds me why my soul needs classical music. Thanks.
The Upright Bass has frets made of sheep gut (or synthetic gut) because of some fast passages and you can move them to change the note temperament. The violins, violas etc etc strings are made of sheep gut too (or synthetic gut) because they are from the baroque era
They're usually old strings, and these are definitely real gut.
It's a violone, not an "Upright Bass." A violine is a member of the viola da gamba family. The frets are normally positioned in equal temperament. A temperament is a tuning system that sacrifices the purity of just intonation to achieve other objectives; there's no such thing as changing "note temperament." Frets can be adjusted to make it easier to play enharmonics, especially the fret closest to the nut. But the main reason frets are adjusted is to compensate for the fact that gut strings get sharper as they age.
Gut strings were still in use in the early 20th century. The sound of gut strings was preferred over metal. The concertmaster of a major philharmonic orchestra continued to use gut strings until his retirement in the 60s. During WWI, the demand for surgical gut in the field and the disruption of commerce made quality gut for strings scarce, and string players began using metal strings.
Synthetic gut strings (nylon) sound nothing like real gut strings.
The frets on the violone are made of gut just like the strings. They are tied on and used a bit differently than on a guitar. It's great to see a Bach reaction. Yhank you!
About the padding you see on the violins and violas: this is a Baroque orchestra playing period instruments. The chinrest was not added until some time around 1800. (For context: in 1800 Bach had been dead for 50 years, Mozart had been dead for 8 years, and Beethoven was writing his first symphony.) Before that, violinists and violists just put a thick cloth between their jaw and the instrument.
The word "concerto" has evolved over time. In the early Baroque era, it meant any piece with multiple movements for an instrumental ensemble. (Concertare = to come together.) Around 1700, composers started writing concertos for soloist with orchestra to display a virtuoso's skill, and from there the solo concerto became a separate genre from the concerto grosso ("big concerto"). The concerto grosso fell out of favor when the symphony became a standard form in the Classical era, but the solo concerto stuck around and that's why "concerto" refers to a piece for a soloist with orchestra today. (The concerto grosso made a bit of a comeback in the 20th century, with composers starting to write them to display the virtuosity of an entire orchestra. But modern examples are often titled "Concerto for Orchestra" which more or less means the same thing.)
By the way, I think a reaction video for a solo concerto would be fun. There's a lot of great ones to choose from.
So the piece of cloth that some violin and viola players use can be to protect the instrument from sweat, but it can also be to "protect" the skin on your neck because a piece of cloth is nicer than the bits and pieces that can stick out of a violin. I also know violinists who use a piece of cloth instead of a shoulder rest.
For your question about the concerto, there's two types. There's the solo concerto, where there's one player, the soloist, who plays parts on their own, sometimes completely alone, sometimes accompanied by the orchestra. This is the type of concerto where people speak about a "violin concerto", "piano concerto", "bassoon concerto", ... There are also concertos "for violin and cello" or "violin and piano" and so on. As far as I know, these are also considered soli concerti because you truly have those one or two or three soloists.
The second type is the "concerto grosso". In this type, there's a lot of soloists, who all have a part or parts where they play something else than the rest of the orchestra/play alone. The Brandenburg concerti are concerti grossi.
As for the size of the orchestras, that mostly has to do with the history of orchestras and musical instruments in different musical periods. In baroque, orchestras are usually string orchestras with a harpsichord or a similar instrument. Wood and brass instruments aren't a standard part of the orchestra. In the classical period, woodwinds and horns and the like become a standard part of orchestras. (If you listen to Mozart or Haydn symphonies, you'll definitely notice them.) And then in the romantic era, more brass and percussion instruments became standard parts of the symphonic orchestra. In that time, they also liked to make the orchestras bigger and bigger (and the symphonies and pieces longer and longer - several Mahler symphonies are over an hour long). I hope this clears things up!
If you think of the Christmas oratorio as an example there are also brass instruments (trumpets) and percussion though.
@@grandmak. True, but the majority of orchestral music (at least what I know) doesn't have (much) brass and percussion. I'm not an expert, but I assume that also depends on genre.
@@birthe9439 symphony orchestras have, yes.
I don't know about numbers or majority.
There are also classic and baroque compositions for brass only.
@@grandmak. I meant the majority of baroque orchestral music, and those aren't called symphony orchestras (at least not in Dutch).
Anyway, I certainly didn't mean to imply there's no brass or percussion in baroque or classical. Only that the orchestras were smaller and their role was also often smaller back then. This is what I learned i my classes and what I know from listening/playing, but to be fair, I'm a violinist, so half the baroque orchestral music I know are violin concertos and a few other concertos (plus a few masses and operas). Of course there are baroque pieces where brass plays a major role, but I don't know any compositions where you'd have 10 brass players, as you need for some romantic pieces.
@@birthe9439 that's right of course. I think Händel might be another exception but most of the other composers of the Baroque had smaller orchestras, I agree.
Interesting fact: the first movement of the 2nd concerto was chosen as the first musical piece to be played on the Voyager Golden Record, a phonograph record containing a broad sample of Earth's common sounds, languages, and music sent into outer space with the two Voyager probes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record
I listened to the whole musical section of the Golden Record, and I mostly agreed with every choice. I wasn't familiar with a lot of the non Western music, but I could really enjoy the variety and quality. An interesting compilation for sure.
Good music never fades away
Thank you guys for this video! I love Bach's music! May God bless you and your loved ones!
A concerto is an orchestral piece that features a particular instrument as the soloist.. such as a piano concerto, or an oboe concerto... or trumpet or flute.
The Brandenburg concertos, on the other hand, are in a form known as "Concerto Grosso", where instead of a single solo instrument, a group of instruments is featured.
This particular concerto (number 3) features, 3 violins, three violas, three cellos with basso continuo (the bass and harpsichord - equivalent to the modern-day rhythm section of a jazz combo). In fact, in this particular concerto, there is no supporting orchestra behind the soloists (except for the continuo). They all get their own individual/independent part.
Brandenburg number 2, for example, features Trumpet, Flute, Violin, and Oboe as soloists, with strings and continuo as accompaniment.
This was one of my first pieces that got me into classical music, I heard a synthesized version in my teens and it made me want to hear the orchestral version. A far as [Br owk] vs [Br ock], my understanding is this is a difference of American and British English (though I may be wrong). What I can tell you as someone who has a degree in music from America is that no one at my school ever said 'Barock' including the professors. So you are fine saying it however it makes you happy.
For me Bach is a perfect
If you want Bach at his most dramatic and powerful, listen to the opening chorus of St. John's Passion. It will blow you socks clean off.
St Matthew passion is even more epic imo
That unique sound of the harpsichord versus the piano is because in a harpsichord the strings are "plucked" when you press a key instead of being "struck" as in a piano.
You can definitely memorize this music. I played both violin and viola during different years in high school, and even many decades later, I can remember much of 2 - 3 parts like I played it just yesterday. If memory serves correctly, this part of Brandenburg #3 starts allegro, and the second part is allegretto (much faster tempo). You practice it so much (especially with this!) that it writes itself onto your memory, long-term.
As far as this former chamber musician is concerned, JS Bach IS the greatest composer ever, and I'd played (or sang) hundreds of composers' music over the years, (including Vivaldi, Telemann, Handel, Corelli, Haydn, Pachelbel, Scarlatti, Mozart, Salieri, Beethoven, Rossini, Schubert, Berlioz, Wagnet, Dvorak, Britten, Debussy, Mussgorsky, Satie, Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, etc...). There is just something about Bach's music that indelibly records itself onto my brain like virtually no other composer. Of course, it didn't hurt that this particular piece was such a fun challenge to play, and a joy to perform.
Do some research on JS Bach, - he was amazing, the man churned out excellent music like a machine. (Vivaldi is another favorite and genius of Baroque music, fun and challenging to play, his works are definitely worth a listen.)
It is BarOque, I'd never heard "BaRock" as a pronunciation, not once, ever, prior to the mention just now. Old English is a Germanic language (although the spelling looks influened by French), and I just cannot see how you'd derive Barak from that spelling. You mentioning this is the first time I'd ever heard such a thing in my long in the tooth existence.
I am not currently playing, and haven't played with an orchestra for many years, but most beginner string players learn to play with 4 thin strips of tape on the finger boards under the strings that serve as temporary frets until students begin to develop muscle memory and no longer need them. (Or at least violinists, violists, and cellists don't.) Some double bass players sometimes did leave a piece (or two) of tape on their fingerboards as a quick reference to use because the fingerboard is so large it is easy to get lost without a jumping off point, especially on fast, acrobatic pieces of music.
While I am not familiar with the particular device this bassist uses, the concept is probably still similar to the tape that beginners use on most fretless classical string instruments.
There are chin and shoulder pads for use with violins and violas, and the wooden or plastic chin rest piece can also be changed out as well. Some players also do use a piece of cloth. Rather like some guitar players use picks, and some can't stand them.
Baroque came to English from the French word barroque, meaning ´irregularly shaped’ so the word is French and in French it is pronounced as Baro QUE as is rock
please try some late Beethoven - Piano Sonatas 31, 32, for example
I think he is the most ingenious classical musician
About the towels that the two listeners mentioned: Baroque period violins and violas do not have built-in chin rests. The towels protect the instruments from the musicians' sweat and makes it more comfortable to hold them against their necks.
I love Bach because it is baroque and Bach rocks.
I think I've heard 'bachmanity " from the tv show "Silicon Valley". And the next comment about the Pied piper t-shirt is kind of confirmed that it is definitely from that show. ))) Anyway, it good video as always. Keep it up! I would love to see reaction from the 5 and the 6 Brandenburg concerto as well. However, anything from Bach would be fantastic!
The opening: like you thought a week would be enough to cover Bach.
He got paid “by the note”
This is a period instrument performance. The ensemble is using instruments of Bach's time or reconstructions of such instruments.
What you're calling a "chin pad" is a _chin rest._ What you're calling an "upright bass" is a 16' _violone._ What you think are "rubber bands" are _frets_ similar to the frets on a guitar. The frets on a violone are adjustable and made of gut string, not rubber bands.
The 3 string players on the right that you think are playing violins are playing violas, not violins. (A viola is larger than a violin and tuned a 5th lower.) This concerto is scored for 3 violins (not 6 violins), 3 violas, 3 cellos and a continuo group consisting of harpsichord and violone.
It should be obvious that this is NOT a concerto for a single soloist. It's a concerto with multiple soloists . At times, some members of the ensemble stand out as soloists; at other times they don't.
No, the harpsichordist is not a soloist. The left hand of the harpsichordist merely doubles the bass line; the right hand improvises a simple chordal accompaniment. Look up _continuo._
I have no idea what you think medieval music sounds like, but the motif you think sounds "medieval" doesn't sound even remotely medieval. That motif is derived from 2nd and 3rd measures of the main theme.
The concerto was composed for private performance in a princely chamber, not for public performance in a concert hall. Stop trying to understand this early 18th-century concerto as if it were a late 18th- or 19th-century orchestral work for the concert hall. It's chamber music, not orchestral music.
All the so-called Brandenburg Concertos are merely minor updates to concertos originally composed for, or at least performed by, the musicians at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Koethen, when Bach was the prince's Kapellmeister (1717-1723). When Bach prepared the "Brandenburg" versions for dedication to the Margrave of Brandenburg (the Prussian king's brother) in 1721, he simply reused the Koethen wrapper. The story that poor little Bach's Brandenburg Concertos were never performed is nonsense when you understand (1) the origin of the works and (2) the fact that the Margrave lacked the resources to perform them. Bach didn't call them Brandenburg Concertos. He called them "Six Concertos for Diverse Instruments." Contrary to popular misconceptions about these works, they were never lost; in later years Bach reused several movements of some of these concertos in his Leipzig cantatas, and there were multiple copies and versions. E.g., there are 13 manuscript copies and several versions of #5; in the oldest version of #5, the principal violin and flute parts of the 1st movement do not have the familiar triplets.
Bach is the GOAT.
Das will ich meinen, Gnädigster. Und er kommt noch weit vor Chuck Norris!
If you want to take a look at harpsichord songs in the future, I highly recommend glancing at The Goldberg Variations BWV 988, the Keyboard Partitas BWV 825-830, and maybe even the "English" Suites BWV 806-811. The Netherlands Bach Society has many harpsichord recordings, including the Goldberg Variations, some of the Partitas, and at least some of the English Suites.
Amo!! Es 2do movimiento 🎉❤
First Zeppelin and now Bach. This young fella is getting an excellent musical education. Great job! 👍👍👍
Those frets you see on the bass are gut. That's how period basses are set up. You take a piece of gut and tie it really tight and melt the ends so it doesn't come undone. This piece is actually a concerto grosso which means group concerto which was a very popular form in Bach's time. So a small group of instruments makes up the concert and the larger group is the ripieno.
If you try melting real gut you will create a really terrible stench and not much else. Artificial gut is created most often using nylon, so will melt as you describe, but obviously was not used in traditional instrument setup - the reason people knew their knots much better in the past is that there were no cheats like melting available. But artificial gut is not really an accurate representation of the sound you get from the real thing (although it is close enough for learning up to the entry of a paid professional standard). The downsides of real (sheep) gut are cost and longevity. Cost is very high because of the labour-intensive production methods needed, and is increased by the need for fairly frequent replacement - if the instrument gets as much use as any professional like these would subject it to, several sets per year, at a cost of around $120 per set for the smallest and most common of the strings - the violin. I'm not familiar with the equivalent for a cello or double bass, but it will be scaled up in approximate proportion to their size.
A concerto with one main solo instrument could be a piano concerto or a violin concerto where the solo instrument and the orchestra play alternately but this is a piece of chamber music with a smaller orchestra. 'Concertare' (Latin) just means playing together.
An interesting reaction to have would be the last Contrapunctus of Die Kunst der Fuge. It's incredibly complex, 8 minutes long, and unfinished, as Bach died before he was able to finish it. the sudden silence at the end is incredible.
Also the frets on the contrabass are the same material as the strings, sheep gut, and they are tied around. They can be moved around to fit the temperament.
Wonderful!!!
Those things you called elastic bands, are called gut frets, they are tied on. Which also explains how the strings look, because they too are gut.
The reason why it's smaller is not because its a concerto, its because you're listening to a baroque orchestra and baroque orchestras were generally small, orchestras didn't get bigger till the classical period, then got massive in the romantic.
Since you enjoy the harpsichord, try Concerto in D minor or Concerto for Four Harpsichords in A minor are both amazing pieces.
To answer your comment about the solo instruments, Bach was a very mathematical guy. He would sometimes doodle math on his scores. In this concerto, Brandenburg concerto number 3, there are 3 groups of 3 solo instruments, so all the players are technically solo instruments in this concerto. Even in the beginning melody, you can hear the distinct “G, F#, G” three times. After that, another scale-like melody happens three times. But yes, please check out Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor. You can go to the youtube channel Gerubach to see the score alongside music.
Actually that wasn’t rubber bands, that’s old gut strings that are attached to the neck of the double bass to make frets, but I think only in baroque instruments or interpretation they do that
Medieval and renaissance lutes also have gut string frets 🙂🙂
Actually, it's a violone, not a double bass, and what you're calling "the neck of the double bass" is called a fingerboard. All string instruments have a fingerboard. The fretted violone dates back to the 16th century. It's a member of the viola da gamba family. Instruments in the viola da gamba family have frets because they were derived from a Renaissance guitar. In Elizabethan times, the English called a violone "the great bass."
I particularly like the 2nd Brandenburg Concerto. Another concerto I really like is the concerto grosso in a minor, no. 8, op 3 for two violins by Antonio Vivaldi. Even more than the Four Seasons.
Notice there's no conductor. This was normal in Bach's time. Back then, conductors were for rehearsals. The first violin was often in charge of tuning and getting the orchestra started together, or it might be the harpsichordist who was often in front where everyone else could see him. The Baroque concerto form usually called for three movements (the other five Brandenburgs have three) but the Bach didn't write a second movement for the 3rd Brandenburg, apparently, he expected the players to improvise a second movement.
There is classical music and there is Baroque, Bach is Baroque. This movement is what I believe the best barque song of all time
It's not a "song." lol
3, it comes many times in his music
Father, Son and the Holy spirit. Bach the greatest composer in music.
Of Bach, Mozart said, “Finally! Somebody I can learn from!”
The Baroque Bass Viol has gut frets that the maker puts on but the player can adjust and replace them, and the violin/viola players used towels because period instruments didn't have chin rests yet, and these are all very old instruments. Even the bows look and are held differently.
This sort of music was often written on commission for the Noble host to be played by their guests at social gatherings - a noble may have a small orchestra and friends and family would play their own or borrowed instruments, some guests would dance and some would just watch and socialize. I love the 3rd Brandenburg most especially because its so damn joyful...I can't listen to it and not smile :) @MrYuryZ's comment tells the history nicely
Pronunciation: I don't know about the word Baroque specifically, but I do know there was something called "The Great Vowel Shift" between 1400 and 1700. A LOT of words we use now were pronounced very differently before then. It's possible people are interested in returning to pronouncing 'baroque' as Bach and his contemporaries would have pronounced it.
This concerto is like a briskly flowing river to me, undulating smoothly and pleasantly yet with strength and power. Carries me away.
Harpsichord strings are plucked when a key is pushed. A piano strings are struck with a padded hammer. Hence, harpsichords are strong instruments; pianos are considered percussion instruments.
thanks for the Baroque ;)
Concerto = consert. 🤘🤘🤘
Y’all GOTTA listen to Corelli’s Folia on Viola Da Gamba, it’s such a treat~
Actually these were baroque violins (and violas), wich didn’t have neckpads. You also recognize their bows, shorter than the modern ones.
You guys will LOVE Karl Philippe Emanuel Bach!
There are not 6 violins, there are 3 violins and 3 violas and 3 cellos and 1 double bass. The 3 on the left that sound higher are the violinists playing the violins. The 3 on the right that sound lower and deeper but not as low as the 3 in the middle that are the cellos are the violists playing the viola. The viola is a string instrument belonging to the violin family but isn't a violin, it is tuned a fifth lower.
A concerto is a composition that has two or three movements, such as thst music you recently listened to be Bach. Pronounce the h not c. The a is the same as a short o. How I know this is because I'm a perfectionist and genius. Language is additionally exceedingly important to me. Besides that, I want to help people. In the event that you want to learn much more about music, you need to trust people. In addition to that, I never want to lie to any other people.
Bah r-AH-'k and Bah r-OH-'k are both correct. The first is British English, and the other is American English. However, the word is French, so we're both mistaken.
BWV 1063 Concerto for three harpsichords in D minor
Bach es el dios de la armonía
A concerto is a piece written to feature a lead instrument. try a Violin concerto by Tchichosvsky or a piano concerto by Beethoven Sometimes you will find a Double concerto featuring two leads. And yes. even Triple concertos. Never heard of Barak. like the Obama, no it is Broke. like go for broke.
Nice song. Good beat, easy to dance to. Give it a 75. I like Barack!
It depends on which language you are speaking
A bit late maybe but if you're doing a Bach series you should include Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. Here it is Karl Richter's version which happens to be my personal favourite: th-cam.com/video/_W4PJUOeVYw/w-d-xo.html.
Another great recording is Helmut Walcha's: th-cam.com/video/ymGO89N7Nu8/w-d-xo.html (Passacaglia) - th-cam.com/video/BvYbNlgjIAg/w-d-xo.html (fugue) - Walcha recorded Bach's complete organ works twice, one time in mono and one in stereo, which I linked.
Not to be forgotten, Leopold Stokowski's transcription for orchestra: th-cam.com/video/x9Sbk3E8-ws/w-d-xo.html.
just remember that all this came out of just one guy's mind, without a team of writers like the pop stars of today have
Allegro means “lively”.
A concerto generally means there is a solo instrument, BUT occasionally a concerto can mean something else. In the case of the Brandenburg concertos, it is definitely more vague of a concept. Definitely “barrock” pronunciation.
please check camille saint saens and ravel especialy "tzigane"
Barock and roll by Johannes Sebastian.
I think if you’re going to do classical music you should hear something virtuosic that makes you go “WOW how is that even possible!?” like maybe Rachmaninov piano concerto n2 or Mendelssohn violin concerto
In german the word is "Barock" and has the "rock" (hard "k") pronounciation.
Whenever a person is playing a violin, their chin and neck will sweat. This isn't exactly the problem. What is is that they're playing quite the old instruments. They don't want to have those chin rests deteriorating. That's the reason for those clothes between them.
When is Beethoven going to to be about?
I never heard it pronounced any way except Bar-OHK, and honestly it doesn't make sense that the O would be short. All the rules of English would require the O to be the long O, not the short one.
Bach is God
Whoever told you the pronunciation is wrong. Just Google Baroque pronunciation.
The comment section of our Toccata & Fugue reaction video.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, both are correct! It's just that one is more "English" and the other closer to French, German, Italian and so on.
I've fpund google to be wrong about multiple things over the years...just saying it shouldnt be the ultimate solver of your doubts
Well as they say “If it ain’t baroque don’t fix it.”
It's just simply the difference between british and american english.
Even if a bruh is nodding to the stuff, the concertos are not bad)))
Amusingly, the second movement consists of only two chords that last like 5 seconds. No one has any idea why Bach did this.
Baroque is a French word and if you're speaking French it would sound like Barock
The name of Bach is not pronounced like the "bok" in bok choy. The _ch_ is like the _ch_ in Ach, Bach. Not awk, bok.
And the _a_ in Johann is not like the _a_ in man; it's like the _o_ in Jon, but shorter.
It's amusing how the clueless hosts bob their heads as they try to process the early 18th-century music they're hearing as if it was contemporary pop music or "get down" music.
If the pronunciation isn't Baroque don't fix it....by making it rhyme with Dwayne Johnson.
Pronounciation depends on which language you speak.
I prefer Scarlatti played on piano
You guys have to get a better recording of this. The audio is terrible. For your edification there are 6 Brandenburg Concertos, it is said that if these were the only 6 pieces of music that Bach wrote he would still be the greatest composer of all time.
Bach sometimes went to dinner with God
If it ain’t baroque don’t fix it.
I’ve never seen a black dude be so out of sync with music his head doesn’t know which way to sway, black mans kryptonite I guess 🤷♂️😂
The guy on the left doesn't know what to make of this music. He's clueless. He listens to an early 18th-century concerto as if he were listening to rock or pop music. Notice he bobs his head. He doesn't even know the difference between a harp and a harpsichord.
No, they're lying to the two of you. I'm thinking you're joking with us watcher's this video. You know it's pronounced ba roak. The actual word is baroque.
No! No! No!
Pardon me for waxing all pedantic, but there were NOT six violins! There were three violins and three VIOLAS (which are NOT violins!).
Good point
Also, I think it's a shame that the camera people didn't focus on the violist when that person had a rare moment when a violist gets to have the spotlight. It happens twice here; at 10:50 and again at 12:36. It's the string in the middle register that solos for just a couple of seconds. I think it's the person on the far right of the stage. @@GetSidewaysReacts
~ 7:20 "It sounds medieval." lol Clueless.
I like the idea of Baroque having sounded somewhat similar to it’s predecessor - the era was based on canonical music which led its way to contrapuntal music
@@paulmusyk4lyfe51 OMG. Get a clue:
Clue #1: The Baroque (~1600-1750) was preceded by the Renaissance (~1400 to ~1600), not the Middle Ages (~500 to ~1500).
Clue #2: Neither the music of the Renaissance nor the music of Middle Ages "was based on canonical music."
Clue #3: Canon did not "led its way to contrapuntal music." A canon is itself a contrapuntal composition.
Clue #4: There's nothing remotely "medieval" about this early 18th-century concerto, which is an example of a composition from the Late Baroque, not the middle or early Baroque, not the Renaissance, and not the Middle Ages.
Clue #5: Bach didn't invent counterpoint. Composers were using counterpoint centuries before Bach was born.
Don't sent or offer me any gift, please. I don't deserve it because I don't subscribe to any TH-cam channels.
Its pronounced Barack Obama
bad performance in many ways
johncollins. Such a short line is as worthless as the «too fast» or «too slow.» Please give us a rationale - why is this version so bad in many ways? I’m not asking about your personal taste, because it’s uninteresting - tell us what you know, thank you.