How staff lines were drawn by the Bach family
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- How Johann Sebastian Bach used his five pointed nib, called a rastrum, to produce staff lines.
Where he placed his inkwell, some observations about his writing desk and the dangers of pipe smoking.
About the method used by his calligraphy teacher and older brother: Johann Christoph Bach.
In addition, some observations about how his sons, students and wife dealt with it.
Hairs stuck in gum arabic & food stains.
Visit my website for more information about Bach and calligraphy: www.joostwitte.nl
Examples of Bach score calligraphy can be seen on my Instagram account, also suitable for contact via DM: @happy.sad.sad.happy.bach
BWV 515:
"How often does it happen when smoking,
if you don't have the stopper at hand,
that you use your finger.
Then I think, as I burn myself:
Oh, if this hurts so bad,
how hot will it be in hell?" - เพลง
I had always assumed the members of the Bach family didn't draw them themselves but rather had them drawn by their staff.
My calligraphy teacher agrees as it can be a tedious job and time consuming. Bach might therefore have outsourced it to pupils and students. But that's not what I read and notice when I try to reproduce.
@@joostwitte5546 But who might be better at drawing staff than the staff itself? I was joking of course. But I am a great admirer of J.S. Bach and I greatly enjoyed your video!
@@pokerandphilosophy8328 😂 That is very witty! I enjoyed listening to your Golfberg Aria recording!
@@joostwitte5546 Sir Edward Elgar had his wife do it for him. But that was 100 years later, and they only had the one child. Your practical scholarship is very, very impressive.
*ba bum tissk*
Super interesting o:
I love learning about such niche topics from people who obviously have very deep knowledge about things I didn't even know you could know.
Thanks for the comment, much appreciated!
In 300 years, when people ask how today's musicians do lines, it will be an entirely different sort of video. I think most currently use a $20, frankly.
That is very witty!
I am deeply impressed at the great amount of attention you have paid to the Bach family's music notation skills. There are so many points of information you have packed into these 13 little minutes. Wonderful indeed! So Anna Magdalena had black hair. I wonder what color Sebastian's was. Thank you ever so much!
Based on the many hairs in BWV 906 I would say that Bach had salt and pepper colored hair. There is a score that looks a bit like a shower drain, BWV 71 folio 5 verso - but there the red hair color and thickness differ from what can be seen elsewhere. I suspect that the paper maker has lost something here. A relevant criterion for making a distinction is of course that the hairs must be stuck in the originally liquid ink. Thanks for the kind comments, it means a lot to me.
This is an amazing video. Learned a lot, never knew he smoked, loved your investigative work on his inkwell, his diet, love the fact that he kept that child's help. Wow want an insight into Bach. You brought him more to life just looking at the manuscripts than I have ever seen. Thank you for this.
I love wows. Bach's physical presence and his trail of thoughts can be experienced so lifelike in calligraphy. Thank you for your response.
Everyone smoked
What a wonderful compendium of details for any musician or historian.
This was one of my favorite topics to elaborate on because I could find so little about it in the literature.
Those are some really great insights into his music writing, his family relations and his habits. Thank you so much for sharing this. =)
Thank you for watching and appreciating!
Fascinating. Thank you
Also thanks!
Another fantastic video from you Joost Witte. I love the information, once again thank you!
Thanks Carl! It's a pleasure for me to make these videos.
Excellent and fascinating. Thank you for you work.
Thank you for your response, I really appreciate it
What a delightful incredible work you do. thank you!
Great to hear such appreciation!
Thank you for this channel. It is informative, skillful and inspiring all at the same time.
If I may suggest something: consider offering online lessons and workshops in calligraphy, if that hold your interest. I bet many would sign up. I would!
Thank you Lars for your response, I will think about your idea, lessons are interesting, not least because I could also learn a lot from the interaction
This is so wonderful! Thank you so much!
Nice to hear, thank you!
Again, a fascinating and intimate portrait of JSB's composing habits. Do any of his scores have stains of wine on them, or other beverages (coffee, tea, beer, liquor, etc.)?
According to the eminent scholar Christoph Wolff, Bach preferred Brandy when composing, but I have not been able to find a source for this. I have not been able to find any comments about the many food stains in the scores. My research is based on studying the digital scans, qualifying the spots is difficult, this is only really possible with the physical scores in hand and the right professional knowledge. I have a suspicion in some places, fat is clearly recognizable because it makes paper transparent, which could possibly be based on soup or stew. Saliva droplets also give very characteristic marks, it changes the aging process of the discoloration of the paper. Some stains are downright gross.
This was very interesting. Thank you!
Thanks for watching, and making the command!
Fascinating! Thank you!
Thank you for your kind response and watching!
My brain malfunctions whenever I see 16th note bars, and the more of them the longer I'm catatonic.
Yes, I can empathize with that
I seem to remember a music history teacher talking about Stravinsky inventing a rolling staff pen. I wonder if they still make them
Right! He called it the Stravigor, it is available antiquarian, but there are also cheap modern versions.
Brilliant. Thanks!
Thank you, it was fun making this video.
With all of the profound analysis by today's scholars of Bach's music - its spirituality, its depth, its passion, its architecture - and the modern means that we have at our disposal to create and edit and delete and print multiple copies - it makes it hard for us to conceive that Bach would have had to pay such close attention to the mundane and sometimes messy task of actually physically handwriting his music. We are fortunate that he was as good at it as he was. No matter how great a mind Bach had, we would have nothing from him if he didn't write it down. We live in a computer age - how often do you ever have to handwrite, and get it right on the first attempt? This seems similar to the medieval monks copying out the Bible, except that Bach had to create the music in his mind before writing it down. Did he ever write a rough draft before the final copy? He must have. Yet if he designed the layout of the page beforehand, he likely also conceived the design of the composition beforehand. Did he compose a fugue as he wrote it down, or did he create the whole fugue in his head and then put it on paper? According to his son, Bach did not compose at the keyboard. He likely had the same mental ability of someone with a photographic memory, so that a painter once having seen a landscape can later paint every detail. Or a math wiz that can perform complex equations in his head. Or a chess master who can play several games at once. Bach could probably manipulate any combination of musical notes in his head, and remember it, and later write it down with accuracy. He had the mind of an architect, engineer, physicist applied to music. Yet even Bach, as great a genius as he was, was not a disembodied spirit, or a Divine Mind, but a human being who still had employ ordinary means. It is this very juxtaposition of the ordinary conditions of Bach's outer life with his rich inner life revealed in his music, which seems to transcend all boundaries, that is a wonder.
Hello Mark, thanks for your thoughts, it is fascinating to imagine what must have been going on in Bach's head and how he went about composing. The fact that he was also just a human seems to increase the miracle, but also brings him closer in some way.
Thank you!
You are very welcome!
Superlative work!
Thanks for the compliment, great to hear.
Perfect!
Dank je wel voor het kijken en alle support!
Welp I know what my sis is getting for Christmas this year
Great!
So much I did not know about this
The calligraphy is so educational to look at precisely!
Großartig!
Das freut mich zu hören!
fascinating...
Thanks!
O sacred head now wounded...
The video: How Bach expressed words in music - features this beautiful chorale and the different way in which Bach set it to tone.
I'm curious. You use an interesting rastrum in this video. Where did you acquire it? I have a modern rastrum nib, but the ink seems to run out too quickly to draw staff lines across the page in a landscape layout. I'm just wondering because the one you use seems to have a reservoir area on it, which would be very helpful.
I use an Automatic Pen - 5 line Music Nib - the nib is made of hand-finished non-rust nickel silver. After first using the historically correct brass rastrum, I switched to this pen because it is considerably easier to use and gives better results. It took a while before I really got used to it, but now I wouldn't want to be without it. I bought mine from Mary Koperdraad: www.kalligrafie.nl/c-4318478/pennen/
@joostwitte5546 Thank you! This was very helpful. I didn't find them on that site, but now that I know what it is called, I managed to find some on a different site. Can't wait to try it out!
When did it become more common to buy pre-printed staff paper?
That would have been in the course of the 19th century, an era beyond my view. So I don't know, but I would like to know more about it.
Boy I wouldn’t want to see what staff lines reveal about me, I can imagine and it isn’t good.
Wow though, what an intriguing video! Thank you
Thank you for your response, and have confidence in your ability to master calligraphy, it is mainly a technique that you can learn.
Subscribed.
Thanks Tyler, your nice remark set me to work for the next video.
wauw!
Wauw voelt als het grootste compliment!
where can I buy a rustrum?
Online search words : automatic music pen will lead to steel rastrum calligraphy shops. Brass music staff pen is also working. Price differences between shops are remarkable for the same pens. Succes when trying out!
@@joostwitte5546 thank you
I glued 5 D1 ballpoint refills together. This makes an almost perfect and long lasting rastrum. (Use tape to fix them in shape, then glue with stable adhesive)
@@tobiasseyb6592 Really? That sounds incredibly unwieldy, given the plasticity of those refills, and their thinness. I suppose you use good glue, but I cannot picture it in my head.
D1 ballpoint refills are made of metal and straight cylindrical. Of course a good hardening adhesive like 2 component is also recommended.
I did not know Bach used to smoke. What did he smoke? Weed? I can't picture Bach smoking weed, but I don't doubt it.
Bach smoked tobacco in a pipe, the tobacco came from plantations in America. There may be a few tobacco crumbs on the scores, I'm not sure as they could also be ink marks.
Just about everyone smoked back then. Pipes were seen as classy, and all "gentlemen" used them.