J.S. Bach: Sinfonia to Cantata No. 29 [2017 Revisit] (Synthesized)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ย. 2017
- Read the note at the bottom for details on the instrument colours.
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote Cantata 29 in 1731, by which time he was working in Leipzig and at the height of his career. Although there is a reference to "Gott" (God) in the title (and the work is based on sacred text), this is not actually a church cantata - that is, it was not written for a specific liturgical feast. But the work is a sacred cantata, written for a service at the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) accompanying the “Ratswechsel” - the annual inauguration of a new town council on the 27th of August of that year.
The cantata is one of few sacred cantatas written by Bach which opens with an orchestral sinfonia. Who knows what Bach’s motivation was behind this Sinfonia (convenience, musical appropriateness, or simply a looming deadline?) but the opening music the citizens of Leipzig heard that day (and again in 1739 and 1749) had existed in another form for over a decade, as the prelude to Violin Partita No. 3 in E (BWV 1006), written during Bach's earlier Cöthen period. Bach had already revised this for organ and strings in 1729 for the “wedding” cantata “Herr Gott, Beherrscher aller Dinge” (BWV 120a).
Bach sometimes reused an earlier composition, typically revising and improving it in a process called “parody” - the reworking of one kind of composition into another. Transposing the work from E major down a step to D major, Bach transformed the prelude and created a joyous orchestral setting befitting the ceremonial pomp of the occasion. The obbligato (solo) organ plays the original virtuoso violin part, while the lavishly written ensemble (3 trumpets, two oboes, strings, continuo and timpani) imitates the material to produce a concerto-like structure. Today, this ceremonial sinfonia is often performed by solo organ (notably by organist Diane Bish).
I decided to revisit this piece as I’d been requested to participate in a concert series of semi “switched-on” music combining analog and digital synthesizers and strings to create a hybrid ensemble. Though the project is on hold, I thought to create a new version having gained more experience and comfort with my software and mixing processes. I tried to get closer in sound to Carlos’ original version than in my previous post from six years ago (th-cam.com/users/edit?o=U&vide.... Though my timbres are reminiscent, I’ve given the score a broader stereo treatment than Carlos’ more simplistic audio vista.
This is probably the most important piece of music to me (and is my ultimate favourite Baroque composition). The work presented here, is my sincere homage to Wendy Carlos, whose 1969 Grammy Award winning "Switched-On Bach" was the album that sparked my interest in Classical music. It inspired me to study piano, explore music through its eras, and later on, lead me to synthesizers and digital sound development.
Here is Bach's famous Sinfonia to Cantata No. 29, "Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir" (We thank you, God, we thank you). As always, the use of headphones will greatly enhance the listening experience.
For those wanting to follow the music, the MAMM Player Visualization colours are as follows:
Organ - Orange (top line)
Trumpets - Light Orange/Yellow/Lime Green (intermittent over Violin and Oboe)
Violin - Green (2nd line)
Oboe - Blue (3rd line)
Bassoon - Mauve (4th line)
Viola - Purple (can be seen under some of the Bassoon line)
Cello - Violet (2nd last line)
Double-bass - Pink (bottom line)
Timpani - Coral (intermittent through Cello and Double-bass) - เพลง
![[Live สด] การออกรางวัลสลากกินแบ่งรัฐบาล งวดวันที่ 16 มิถุนายน 2567](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P3WkqO9gKjo/mqdefault.jpg)
Please find my newer version here: th-cam.com/video/-QorYw9hlsE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=UGZr0sCfIP-ZrHFg
How you ever improved on this I can't imagine. But I'm about to find out!
Original here much better for me. It's got more oomph if I may put it that way.
@johnlopez6100 I feel that way too. I had undiagnosed hearing deficits and didn’t realize the bass was so lacking. Thanks for listening.
@@CareyRMeltz I'm beginning to realize that, the reason so many of the Carlos enthusiasts obsess on doing this piece over and over is that it was the 1st piece on SOB. I'm now thinking this is Your best version. In the 2021 version the central voices are a little too loud, and rather resonantly percussive whereas here they have that nice brass choir effect. James Pinder's version which is excellent & subtle and beautifully voiced is really not a literal copy of Wendy's voicing, but still manages to get the overall character of Wendy's work. I still love the @tenkon version even with the slightly excessive reverb. Both he and James have gone for a sort off bowed harpsichord sawtooth top line rather than Your more accurate popping plucked pizzicato ping pong ball sound, It is true, no one has really duplicated Wendie's lead sound from Sinfonia which somehow has elements of both the popping plucked ping pong balls as well as the bowed sawtooth string effect, and even adds a higher up octave of chirpy chiff along with the rest.
Wow, what a debut,.. for Wendy Carlos her version was,... the complete package that no one has ever quite equalled, although everyone else has added a WHOLE LOT. to keeping her Genius take on electronic synthBach as a self-contained different way of appreciating Bach with its clear and distinctive contrapuntal lines, ALIVE .
Amazing how it is not until hundreds of years later that the technology came along to illustrate just exactly how ingenious this piece really is.
PLUS - it sounds great, too! One of the most jubilant pieces ever written.
I've been doing the 10 album challenge (I'm doing 11 because that's better) on Facebook, 'Switched-On Bach" is my third album in the series. It was the first LP I bought as a 12-year-old boy. I had no exposure to classical music other than my mother occasionally playing parts of "Moonlight Sonata" on our upright piano (That my sister took lessons on, but because I was a boy, were never considered for me. Just how it was then.). I saw this album in the music store, and I liked the cover, because I was really into electronics, and it looked cool. The first piece I heard when I put it on our crappy console stereo was "Sinfonia to Cantata #29". I was pretty much dumbstruck and still am to this day. I went looking for a version to share with my Facebook posting of the album, and found this rendition with it's fabulous visual score. All I can say is, "thank you" for rendering what I see in my mind when I hear this piece.
This is how I visualize music in my head and it's so weird actually seeing it with my eyes
J.S.Bach, the phenomenal composer. The best of all time! Thanks for this :)
the visuals make the music even better.
Like you, my interest in classical music was 100% spawned from Carlos' Switched on Bach - I was probably in my very early teens at the time. If not for those "Switched On" albums, I would have never discovered Bach, Monteverdi, or Scarlatti. This is a mesmerizing and beautiful production that I enjoyed as much as I did Carlos' rendition way back when, with the added bonus of the visuals. I totally love it! Thank you for taking the time to create such a beautiful piece of visual and audible art.
Thanks so much for your comment Gerry. I'm glad you enjoyed this. I'm currently working on a new version that's closer to Carlos' original work.
me too the first emotion was with walter carlos I saw Bach other way
Well done. This piece is thrilling. The visuals are a great representation of how it sounds.
Thank you so much for listening and taking the time to comment. :)
Heh... I've always considered "Switched On Bach" to be aural deliciousness!
You sir, layered an element of optical deliciousness, especially to an old lapsed
pianist like me. I do believe my mother purchased the LP when it first came out.
'69/'70? In our house it was mashed at nearly maximum decibels on Christmas
Day. She still has it! Nothing to play it on but she still has it. Thank You for the
fond trip down memory lane. Sorry for your hearing loss. I hope you can find
a way to adapt and overcome.
Cheers...
Thanks for your amazing comment. I greatly appreciate it. The vinyl was released in 68, I believe (Carlos won a Grammy for S-OB that year)… and I still have my original copies when Walter was rereleased with Wendy. I’m working now with hearing aids and headphones. For the most part, the workaround really helps.
I remember well the first recording done on Moog synthesizer, 1969: Switched-On Bach. This was the first piece on the album. It was the most incredible sound I ever heard! Your performance is wonderful! To me, this is a step beyond. The visual effects and the choice of "instrumental voices" are amazing!
Thanks for taking the time to listen and to comment Joe. For me, S-OB was an "ear-opener" and I went to the mall to buy the record that very evening after I first heard it back in music class, grade 7. It WAS "the most incredible sound I ever heard" too... and that first track was and is my favourite piece of Baroque music to date. I try my best to reproduce or create a familiarity to Carlos' original work, especially in tackling pieces that she didn't release. I have explored enough over the years to understand the nature of her minimal approach and often run into similar problems, even with modern techniques. To simplify, the same notes are often played by various instruments at the same time. Doing so electronically can create all sorts of distortions due to the various wave forms and frequencies... creating a "muddy" sound.
Sometimes it's easy enough to have those "instruments" play in opposite audio channels or use her "hocketting" technique to add emphasis to certain passages or notes in a different octave or timbre and not include those notes beyond being heard by one instrument only. I try to make my sound a little broader, that is, my "ensembles" are usually larger in "players" than her style and I go all out for the stereo effects. I''ve learned how to arrange 2-part keyboard pieces for 12 tracks or so.
This has led me to do more with spatial sound play as the music gets passed off from one instrument to another - a panning effect, as it were, similar to Carlos' recording technique of assigning different stereo positions within her mixing. I've actually been able to do this for a real string ensemble so the music can be played with panning and stereo effects. As I'm starting to improve in this way, my later work - especially large orchestral pieces (not "switched-on") even surprises me. I do take things "a step beyond" because I have the capacity to do so. I know that not everything is a gem but at least I can learn and grow and revisit a piece (like this one) and keep trying to do something better... leaving the original prior version(s) up for comparison.
I tried to recapture the original feel of this track (albeit with digital processes) but it's not perfect yet I can accept it because I do this for my own entertainment and share here so others who grew up with the genre can hopefully enjoy too. I have lowered myself to let the ads play but the minuscule revenue generated helps me to purchase software so I can attempt other types of projects. The visualization is one that is most often requested as it lets people follow the music when they have no training to read it.
Anyway, thank you again for your kind words and I hope you subscribe and find other things to enjoy on my channel.
The first time I heard this, I was also in grade 7. My band instructor played this for me. I had never heard anything like it! I remember my piano instructor purchased the LP at a music store for me. I can't tell you how many times I played that LP! I also purchased The Well Tempered Synthesizer and S-OB 2.
This was my first attempt at a multi-track recording using a digital sequencer/sound module in real time: th-cam.com/video/ecOlR1dBFHI/w-d-xo.html
Our teacher played us the 1st movement of the 3rd Brandenburg and asked us to count and list the number of instruments being played. Well, obviously none of us had heard the music before or even knew the sound of most symphony instruments and so we were eventually called upon for our comments. To our amazement, we were told that the entire piece was played by ONE instrument - the Moog Synthesizer. That blew me away, particularly when he played us the rather "trippy" Adagio. I was hooked immediately and have been so ever since. I have everything Carlos has ever recorded including material that she never released (rare cuts of both electronic and natural instrument cues prepared for "A Clockwork Orange," "Tron," etc. Even one of her going through some of her "Switched-On" stuff where she discusses timbre development and other aspects in creating her music - "Secrets Of Synthesis"). For me, SO-B will always be my first love but there are selections of SO-B II and especially on TW-TS that are even more spectacular to me. One thing in my collection is a rare quad reel that was converted to 4.0 DTS surround. It's not been cleaned up as Carlos did with her other music for her "Switched-On Box" set but it is interesting. I suppose it would have been quite unique in its time but I found it to be too much - everything seemed too isolated or disjointed to my ear (unlike the surround performances done by Tomita - where the musical tales he depicts with his work almost seem like sountracks).
WOW! Quite nice. People who don't know the processes we employ to bring our music to life can often be so quick to give a "thumbs down" because it's not to their liking (for whatever reason, sour grapes, it wasn't what they expected, it wasn't to what their experiences have led them to believe is the only way it should be played, etc.) but they never consider the effort that goes into it. I don't care anymore because I do it for myself and share here in the hopes that others, familiar with the genre, will hear things reminding them of the "old school" stuff... be it recreations or new music not previously done in the style. While your piece doesn't have a synthetic sound, I know that neither a Virgil Fox nor a Diane Bish could have made that organ sing the way you did. I quite liked it and gave a "like." I hope you get more of them and more views! Thanks for sharing it with me. :) (PS. up next, "Sunrise" from Ferde Grofé's "Grand Canyon Suite").
Beautiful, Carey. I love the substantial but not overdone bass presence.
Thank you sir. I really tried to emulate the original Carlos bass sounds.
Can't wait to See the even NEWER and GREATER version in movie theatres ! Carey ! You never cease to AMAZE.
Wonder what Bach would have done with synthesizers.
The organ is essentially a synthesizer
spunked in his pants...
@@cjandersen the organ is a very basic synth ...usually a woodwind device; - as recently as the year 2000 I had plans to build an electronic organ using master tone generator and dividers... - and then I got back into computers and got a copy of REASON
acid techno... ;)
This is the very piece that caused me to stop playing Bach even after years of organ study; the instrument started playing me. I was "channeling" (a spirit?) and this began to scare me.
Later I learned that a lot of classical musicians have this very same experience. (@@?)
Thank you ! A very helpful and clever way to show students what Bach has actually done in music . Please make more of these . Cheers !
I appreciate not only the synthesized realization of the original score ( I did my own a number of years back as a personal study) but the time spent on creating a real-time video display of the instruments playing on the master score. Considering the indifference/ contempt of 2019 of modern society's musical tastes ( for lack of a better word) this is a wonderful teaching tool for the TINY ( less than .001% ) of those of us who still care.... Don't believe me? Play this music for anyone you know & watch their reaction ( assuming you can keep them from yawning after 30 seconds). You might have a bit more positive feedback from European & Asian societies, but most Americans will view this great music as outdated trash to be relegated to our sanitary landfills.
Dave, I just spent the last 45 minutes writing back to your amazing comment but the page somehow refreshed and everything I typed was lost. I will endeavor to re-comment back, as you touched on some very important and personally interesting points. I pinned your comment, as between your brilliantly articulated statement on Social Media society and my experiences (plus a now defunct project which was specifically intended to introduce a new musical medium and hopefully curb some of that apathy), I want to address this topic in detail. Stay tuned and thank you. :)
@@CareyRMeltz Thank you , Mr Meltz! It's very nice to know that I'm not totally alone in my perspective of all of this. Please try again to make your feelings known about all of this.
The visuals along with the music gave me another way to feel the beauty of Bach (my favorite composer). To say I was moved is an UNDERSTATEMENT. Thank you!!!
Thanks so much for your very kind comment.
Absolutely incredible!
Incrível !! Muito bom mesmo !! Obrigado !
Hare Krsna! This made me smile and thank God!
Loved it. Thanks.
I’ve been looking for this exact recording for *years* ! Thank you for uploading it!
Excellent, thank 👍
Thank you too!
Thank you for the visual. It's beautiful to experience the music this way. Powerful.
WONDERFUL! Your 'igneous´ rendition and the torrent of visions making music an unending cosmic dance...! Thanks a lot (from bs. as.)!
Thanks for the version. Carlos' first version was an eye opener for me.
I appreciate your information about the pieces you play.
That's something I feel is necessary (too bad not many people bother to read). I think it's important to give notes about the composer, the piece in its historical context, and how I approached the sounds to bring my version to life.
Beautiful rendition of an amazing rendition of a sublime composition.
Amazing.....
Thanks for watching.
Fantastic composer, Fantastic rendition. Takes me back to the 8-track I had of Wendys Moog work. My all-time favorite! Thanks Carey!
I love this piece, and it sounds made for synthesizer. Thank you. Very enjoyable!
Thank you so much for listening and taking the time to comment. :)
I'm sure many other people have enjoyed this but haven't left comments. I was a Beatles fan growing up, but bought SOB on a whim without knowing anything about Bach. When this piece blasted out of my speakers, I was stunned by its energy, beauty, and breathless joy.
@@thom6746 Thanks for you kind comment Ken. I too was blown away by the "switched-on" sound and sought to explore everything about it and about Bach too.
Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir (we thank you God, we thank you)!
Love your work and your channel! greetings from Austria!
Thank you so much for listening and I appreciate it very much that you enjoy my music.
*BACH A TOTAL GENIUS.*
This is remarkable, at the first chord I thought it was the original, then I thought "maybe it is remix", but no, this is great original work.
The sounds are *gorgeous*, I wonder whether you used all software or if there's something "real" in the mix, perhaps an old Moog module here and there...
I remember not liking this piece too much when I first listened to it in Carlos' version, it was too ornate, too spectacular. Ironic, since probably Bach's original intention was exactly to impress, since the organ was a monster synthesizer for the times. But then I listened to it a second time, a third, and so on. At that time we did not have TH-cam, and audio technology was not at the level it is today, vinyl records only have what, 50dB of dynamics? So good luck in trying to discern all the parts while listening to a recording of instruments sounding similar to each other and blurred by natural reverb.
Then Wendy Carlos came along and all of a sudden you could listen to a whole Brandenburg concerto with incredible clarity. All the polyphony laid bare, voices that you never heard before now piercing through the mix.
Anyway, congratulations, I bought the record in 1976 (it cost a fortune, it was imported), and since then this is the only version that I heard that can hold its ground.
Thanks for the accolades, I appreciate that you get what I'm trying to do with my electronic interpretations. For your interest, I'm in the final stages of completing a 2021 update of this piece so please watch for it soon. :)
Love the bass in this
The newer version I'm working on is even better and closer to Carlos' original.
love the bassline on this imagine doing this on an actual bass guitar
Ich bin Johann Sebastian Bach, und ich liebe einfach, was Sie mit meiner kleinen Komposition gemacht haben. Vielen Dank.
how good is this
I like how you provided me with the music notes.
Thank you for this Mr Meltz. A norepinephrine D5 avalanche with every play!
😂 Love your comment! Thanks so much for it and glad to know you enjoy my work.
Loved it
MAGNIFICENT!
Magnificent!!!
Excelente. Te felicito.
Muchas gracias.
This is super cool!
Thanks Steve. Still not as close to the original as I'd hoped for but I'm really pleased with some of the sounds and the stereo balance.
Bravo!
classic carey
thanks for all
your pal,
oklahoma chris oklahoma U.S.A.
Want a challenge? The last movement of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony. : ))) l
Oh gosh, no thanks. LOL It's quite long to sequence. I'm not too familiar with a lot of Mozart (though I do know this one), but I am working on a version of the aria from his "Exsultate, jubilate."
Very excellently captures Wendy's sonorities! L O V E it !
"This is probably the most important piece of music to me..."
Same here. My all time favorite. I consider this the greatest musical composition in our recorded human history. And your arrangement of it here is PERFECTION! Please tell me how I can get a lossless recording of this!
Thanks for this truly wonderful (and very kind) comment. I'm still not completely satisfied with this one and am already re-working it. Happy to report, this 2017 re-visit sounds closer to Carlos' original than I ever thought I could get. I've been learning how create my own patches for Arturia's Moog Modular VSTi and it's really made the difference. I'm still experimenting in finalizing the timbres and will hopefully post in the near future. If you are still interested in this one, drop me an email (as Google's done away with messaging) at CRM_d-SIN@rogers.com. I can upload the WAV file to a Cloud service and send you the link. :) Cheers and thanks again.
awesome work. love from china.
Thanks Dan, most appreciated. :) Cheers from Canada.
Genial 👍
You truly capture the magic of Bach. Bravo!
Thank you so much Noel. I'm just taking something that's already been done and putting my own spin on it with my own sensibilities and the use of modern technology. I wonder what Ms. Carlos would do with today's equipment/software? Her digital version of S-OB (Switched-On Bach 2000) was a huge departure in sound from her original work... if only she'd gone back to recreate her analogue style!
A mighty fine spin.
Thank you Leynia. I really wanted to get this one closer to Carlos's original... it's the very piece that sparked my interest in Classical music and lead me to take piano lessons. It truly started my musical journey.
What a joy it must be to have advanced so far to do this piece justice. I have Carlos's album from way back when. I no longer have stereo equipment, so I will listen on my niece's, for comparison. I am not musically educated, but your interpretation- (and I will see about Carlos's) is my favorite of Bach's work.
Please email me: CRM_d-SIN@rogers.com. With this piece (as with the majority of my work), I try to capture the feel of Carlos' original work but I can never keep it simple enough to match her "minimalist approach" (and there are definitely reasons behind this, particularly based on the early equipment she used). I tend to make things broader, that is, more involved within the stereo field - not just having a "violin" mid-left channel, while the "trumpets" are over to the right; I create more balance and end up with a fuller sound. It seems to be my style and I no longer fret over not being able to more closely recreate her work. This piece, however, I do feel that some sounds are pretty good (especially the bass line). I am not trying to "toot my own horn" here and could never claim to do anything better that what she's ever done... I rarely listen to one of her pieces when I'm going to do the same one, as I don't want to be influenced (this piece is an exception) and try to do it from memory - or my impression of what it sounded like. And so I end up creating something "richer(?)" - or that's what people have commented. Some state they like my versions better than hers. I've commented on others' channels that I think they've done better than mine. It's all personal experience or the connection to the work I suppose. Some have stated that they think the work I do is possibly what Carlos could have done with today's equipment. Who knows... I just create music that I like, with my own sensibilities, and hope that others enjoy. It's my hobby, I'm no expert and I certainly appreciate that not everything I do are gems nor can I expect people to give a "thumbs up." I humbly appreciate honest feedback, especially that people take the time to do so.
Egregious Mr. Carey R. Meltz, I discovered, by chance last night, His magnificent synthesizer performances of works by Bach, and although there is the legendary precedent of Walter Carlos,
His interpretations are fresh, brilliant and exhilarating !!! Is there a CD where these works and other compositions were recorded ? With esteem, Giacomo Nicotra ( Palermo, Italia )
I have the open mind enough to where I know there has to be other worlds who do music. How do they notate it? Could it be something like this? I wonder as I wander....
Sob turned me on to Bach too. Bach back in the 60s was overdone by big orchestras which did his music a great disservice. Sob showed the beauty and busyness of Bach's music with clarity. Great rendition here.
Thank you for commenting Ken. I too have experienced Bach with way too many instruments (*cough - the heavy hand of von Karajan). S-OB was a bit minimalist but Carlos made that music live! I tend to make my ensembles sound a bit larger than her original work and as much as I try to render pieces in her style, I've accepted that my output is appreciated by both old and new lovers of the genre.
Thanks a plenty of. Magician.
This one's nice.
just wondering what JSBthinks of all this?\
!wanderbar!
これが楽譜なら、私にでも指揮ができそうです！ これって、一種の革命ですよね！
I really love this leading staccato melody in one single tempo and move. I prefer it from all the instrumental versions on organ, I’m most cases the melody is too much in the back.
the stereo mix is almost identical to the album itself
Thanks for noticing! I tried to keep it minimalistic in Carlos' original style but the sounds are a little "wider" in the stereo field, and the 3 "trumpets" are definitely moved and spread over the centre.
THAT is how my mind works!
(how did you know?)
Oaaaa 😯😯😯😯😮😮😮💚💚💚🧡❤️🧡💚💚💚
I much prefer this rendition to any done with traditional instruments. The bass is especially sublime.
The purple dots require the big woofers !!
I love this synthesized version. I also recommend checking out Diane Bish and her epic performance on the chuch organ: th-cam.com/video/1Csynke0maE/w-d-xo.html
Thanks! I think I may have mentioned and/or even posted the same link to Bish's wonderful presentation of the work.
@@CareyRMeltz Thanks for taking your time to reply . Indeed she is mentioned and linked in your description. Did you ever consider Grieg’s Piano Concerto for synthesis? I love Isao Tomitas versions of Griegs works.
@@adoringfan6745 I have to be inspired by or in some way connected to any particular piece. About the only thing that I thought would translate well (at least to Carlos' aesthetics) was my version of the Praeludium from Grieg's "Holberg Suite" th-cam.com/video/QxYAerWRaUg/w-d-xo.html. I don't feel close enough to any of his other work to be inspired enough for a "Tomita" treatment.
@@CareyRMeltz I feel you. Good luck with your amazing work :)
00:55
What if Bach really thought in bubbles?
allmost identical to the Walter Carlos version
Very kind comment bob. It certainly is an "interpretation." I'm currently working on an updated version that is far closer to Carlos'.