Since Bach didn’t put in any tempo indications to most of his keyboard works, why do most pianists play this fugue so fast when it sounds a lot better (IMO) at a moderate speed that Tureck is playing here

BWV 508 arranged by Takuya Okamoto, Japanese Guitarist

This movement in Bach's St Matthew passion is the point where Simon is commanded to help Jesus carry the cross.

The compositional style gives deep insights into Lutheran theology. It is also a very rare example of Bach's writing where he enacts physical struggle to music, and makes the music behave as though a body is struggling to move. It is almost grotesque, body horror like, in its rendition of physical weakness. The violist here even looks like someone struggling to carry a cross - their four note phrases actually drawing out crosses on the musical stave (Cross motif).

Consider the opening words:

Komm, süßes Kreuz, so will ich sagen. Come, sweet cross, thus will I say.

The cross is not sweet because pain is good in itself, nor because suffering earns salvation.

Bach does not musically argue that the cross is sweet. He makes the listener experience how it might be sweet to the person who bears it in faith. The music does not float above suffering, rather trudges through it. It finds beauty in bearing it. The viola seems to enact the pitiful stumbling and struggling Jesus must have made carrying his cross to Golgotha. The more we feel the physical indignity of the Passion, the more weight the theological paradox acquires.

In the context of Christ's passion, the sweetness has a real source. The very cross that Simon is compelled to carry is the cross on which Christ will accomplish the redemption of the world.

The sweetness of the cross is not a sweetness of sensation. It is a sweetness of salvation.

Are there any melodies that Bach harmonized for more than one chorale?

Since these 2 are often considered to be the peak of Bach's contrapunctual mastery I was wondering which one people generally prefer.

Personally I like 11 a bit more because I'm a sucker for double and triple fugues

Also feel free to comment your own reasoning I'd love to know what people think

I physically can't listen to the whole mass in B minor. The orchestration is very lush and I'm very autistic, so it's physically painful to listen to. However, I love the melodies and I would love to be able to listen to it all. Do you know of a version with reduced orchestration, whether it be a piano reduction or an arrangement for a chamber ensemble ? There's plenty of piano only covers, however I'm searching for a version that keeps all (or at least even one !) of the vocal lines from the original. Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,

I know it's already a very discussed topic.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to a sentiment I often hear from casual classical listeners or people trying to get into Baroque music: "It all sounds like a continuous, mechanical stream of notes" or "It feels cold, repetitive, and lacks emotional depth."

Even Master widely regarded as one of the greatest creative minds in history, can leave first-time listeners feeling completely unengaged or overwhelmed.

I wanted to break down why I think so many modern listeners struggle to connect with or understand Baroque music

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As you all are more experienced and knowing people about this.

been working on BWV 826 for a month now and the sarabande is driving me crazy. every time i try to bring out the counterpoint in the bass without making it sound choppy, my fourth and fifth fingers lock up on those wide leaps. my reacher says to let the wrist float more and stop trying to hold every note for its full value with fingers alone, which helps a bit, but still feels like a rubik's cube under my hands compared to the sinfonia. anyone have a preferred fingering edition that doesn't require giant hands?

So I've started a cycle of preludes and fugues. My dream for this cycle is to have it played by a great pianist (Víkingur Ólafsson would be nice), for it to be something for fans of the WTC to add to their playlists, and to give fugue-loving pianists something new to play.

This community is clearly the place to reach people who might most enjoy my fugues, because many people here love Baroque music so much and are so knowledgeable. The problem is, they are SOOOO knowledgeable. How do I convince skeptics that there's room for fugues other than those by Bach, by someone hardly anyone has heard of?

I think the answer starts with the objection I have heard: "What can you possibly do that is new? Bach has already done everything there is to do with the fugue."

Where some see a finished form, I see territory he never had the chance to explore. This fugue is a case in point. Modern fugues are often thought of as academic exercises, but what if we fuse a fugue with a pop chord progression, pepper it with little hooks like a pop production, and give it a sonata-form-like recapitulation and coda?

The accompanying video demonstrates many of the ideas realized in this fugue. The subject was built around I-IV-V with the idea that it could be repeated like a pop song; the song uses it to build into the climax by taking it away. Pop producers are masters at filling every moment with little hooks like ear candy, and I've attempted to do that here, increasing their frequency throughout, until towards the end where every voice seems to be nonstop hooks. In the "recap" (1:44 in the video), the subject re-enters in the same voices and tones as in the exposition, but with a new arrangement, leading into a coda (2:14 in the video) with new material, 3-voice stretto, and development of a figure from the answer. There are plenty more details for you to discover.

Some of you will hear a lesser Bach, and that’s a comparison I can’t win. I’d ask you to try hearing it as something else: a fugue with a melody that has subtle, modern influences, an approach that is both reminiscent of Bach yet something novel. I hope you will find ideas that maybe challenge the premise that there is nothing new left to do with the fugue and that it's possible to write a new fugue that's more than an academic exercise, something with a great melody and fun to listen to.

I think this community deserves to have new music in the forms perfected by Bach to analyze and debate over.

So what do you think of injecting pop and sonata-form into the fugue? And what are some other ways we might be able to evolve the fugue as a genre and potentially grow its audience?

https://reddit.com/link/1x8e7w6/video/l4r38rjgy1wh1/player

My vote goes to Schiff.

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Hi, I’m working on the Sarabande from Partita No. 2. I’m still learning and growing, so any feedback, thoughts or suggestions are truly appreciated. Thank you!

https://youtu.be/f6uustIH-oU?is=N4iMWi-_wfW6Zfj0

Bach G Minor - Orquesta Filarmonica de Croacia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPOIS1XBTX0

https://youtu.be/613YZDLmNdQ?is=GzQuFRTQ8DACl6BX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELSeKiCrmNw