Analysis of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 (With manuscript source)
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
- 00:35 To skip the introduction.
A (not wholly reverent) analysis of the alleged "greatest organ work ever written". I am hoping to do more of this type of analyses in the future, so suggestions (Musicological, or about the presentation) are welcome!
The fugue is at 8:28
As a bonus, I also included André Raison's Christe (Trio en passacaille), from which Bach likely took the first part of the Passacaglia's bassline from.
Introduction is at 13:32
And the music starts at 13:42
The recording is of James Kibbie (University of Michigan) playing the 1730 Trost organ at Stadtkirche, Waltershausen, Germany, avaliable for download free of charge here: www.blockmrecor...
This video was heavily inspired by a video analysis done by a Mandarin-language channel, "Musician Seacow" His original video is here: • 你一定要體驗的震撼感，巴赫的管風琴曲-帕薩卡...
You'll see that I stole a lot of the color scheme from him. If you understand Chinese, his channel is a great one to follow, especially for introductory-level classical fans.
Additionally, the musical rhetoric analyses come from Wei-Chun Liao's DMA dissertation "A Study of Musical Rhetoric in J. S. Bach’s Organ Fugues
BWV 546, 552.2, 577, and 582"
etd.ohiolink.e...
For possible symbolic interpretations of the Passacaglia (there are a lot, and not all of them are equally convincing) see: www.davidrumsey...
The Mattheson quote on C minor affekt is from his Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre, translated in Mattheson, Johann, and Hans Lenneberg. “Johann Mattheson on Affect and Rhetoric in Music (II).” Journal of Music Theory, vol. 2, no. 2, 1958, pp. 193-236.
For those interested in musical figures, check out Dietrich Bartel's book "Musica Poetica: Musical-Rhetorical Figures in German Baroque Music"
Stoplist of the Waltershausen Trost organ: www.orgelbau-w...
And a stop demonstration by Bálint Karosi • The 1728 Trost Organ i...
I've got perfect pitch myself, so hearing this wonderful piece in apparent C# minor is lovely.
Me too. Makes playing old organs difficult though, it screws me up at the start but after maybe 10 minutes or so of playing I gradually adapt to the new pitch standard.
Luckily my pitch is terrible so I'm unbothered
Never get tired of listening to to this master piece. Master and genius Bach, little aporeciated when he was alive but what an unrivaled music legacy he left…. For eternity.
I knew Bach was a genius. However, this detailed analysis makes me believe it even more. Incredible and intricate detail finely crafted into something you experience as a work of art, not mathematics.
I'm always a sucker every time I hear the passacaglia pedal on pure diapason. It melts my heart very easily. When I'm sad I always go back to this melody, especially this specific recording.
This is an incredible breakdown! This piece may be my favourite piece of music of all time, so I really appreciate the level of detail you've gone into
Subbed
For someone who loves this piece so much, I feel compelled to provide you with this link to an essay on the symbolism of the Passacaglia by the late David Rumsey:
www.davidrumsey.ch/Passacaglia.pdf
This was certainly a time-consuming project, Herr {or monsieur} Couchet! I hope your listeners will appreciate it, including the humor.
I know Im kinda off topic but does anybody know of a good place to stream newly released series online?
@Warren Rohan Flixportal xD
@Marshall Angelo thanks, I signed up and it seems like they got a lot of movies there =) I appreciate it !
@Warren Rohan glad I could help :D
Thank you. A wonderful commentary and wonderful playing.
Excellent performance and analysis! Bravo!
It is THE greatest organ work ever written!
Very interesting project, and you provide such a wealth of information for reference. The manuscript is such a beauty object of art in itself. The only regret is a slower tempo works better for me (I tried slow play 0.75 on YT) but introduces artefacts. The Chinese YT channel you gave says passacaglia is a dance but it isn't really when written for keyboard instruments. 😊
Wonderfully informative on one of my favourite pieces for organ if not my number 1 favourite. I knew Bach had taken an existing 4 bar theme and developed it and now I know the full story. Thank you.
many thanks for this perfect lesson based on brilliant work.
The 'seemingly simple' var. 14 and var. 15 'get' me every time. For me, one of the most moving moments ever.
Thanks for the video, of course!
Especially 15. Simple arpeggios, but the theme is still there!
Thank you for this video. You put into words what my brain perceives when I listen to this wonderful work.
This is an AMAZING video, you literally made my day.
THANK YOU so tremendously for your analysis and the follow along sheet music on screen style as well. I’m an out of work organist & SO in love with Bach & this piece, in particular. & I’m a new subscriber:
THANK U for all U posted; as I’m guessing that took hours upon hours of dedication to compile & post. Blessings to you; with such sincerely deep appreciation!!! 💖💕
I love this piece greatly also. You may enjoy this essay on the Passacaglia by the late David Rumsey:
www.davidrumsey.ch/Passacaglia.pdf
Amazing analysis. Keep em coming❤
What a treat! Fantastic analyses, thank you @Joannes Couchet!
Excellent, thank you so much !
Wonderful music, nice explanations, cats and Picard. Brilliant! :)
This is an excellent job, really amazing, thank you for sharing this!
Awesome video. My favorite Bach piece.
I love this. I am planning to show some teenagers whom I work with. I think they will love the use of humor and meme-ology
BWV 596 the D Minor Concert for Organ would really be a big hit.
This can be played on Pedal Piano & Pedal Harpsichord too.
this is very deep
Great analysis!
Excelent Analysis!
this is amazing. thank you.
Wow!!! Excelente!!! Gracias.
Thank you for your help.
Thank you so much.
Fantastico!
Excellent Analysis! It made me think that I saw God's tears dropping on His smiling face.
Very nice. Thanks. Allow me ome remark. The texts in the opening are only readable for people trained in reading diagonally with great speed.
Yes, I wanted to put in the text but didn't want it to take so long - I was thinking that people would pause to read it. But maybe I will do a spoken word introduction if I do more analyses.
@@joannescouchet7038 It is always a problem how to handle texts best. In some cases I do some LP's which need an introduction somehow before starting for example with the Cage LP op HPSCHD. There I decided to start with the text without the music. But to leave a silence could trigger the listener that the sound card is not ok or that UA-cam is not ok, so I put in just a few notes in a repetitive way so the listener knows that the texts really are important before starting the piece.
You might do the opening notes in the bass line over and over again maybe in a different speed to let people know that the text is important (when it is displayed with a short duration people might think it is not important!) and to get people who don't know the piece that there is a ground played over and over again to get used to.
Бесподобно!!!!
One thing isn't clear for me: the permutation tracker. Could you elaborate that for a music theory newbie please?
A permutation fugue uses a combination of subjects in invertible counterpoint and rearranges them in different voices - so in this case, Bach actually uses every single permutation/arrangement twice of the three subjects in the fugue.
You forgot to mention the Fuga climax occurs at 10:36
Subscribed.
What are your thoughts on Karl Richters rendition?
I think it is one of the most tremendous recordings of the passacaglia out there!
this is a samuel wesley level of bach-devotion
who's that?
The scale is set to C minor yet, I’m hearing C# minor instead. Why? 😂
As mentioned in the instruction, the organ is tuned in around A=465, the usual tuning for Central and North German organs of this time.
@@joannescouchet7038 Ahh. A musician like me never seems to pay attention to the instructions. 😂 All I saw was... music. 😅
Would you be able to do an analysis about bwv 542?
You can find a video pointing out some harmonic aspects at ua-cam.com/video/Jf5rwfk94C0/v-deo.html
@@dalecarr6361 thank you so much!
@@juanbitacoradelmusico5888 You're welcome!
Sure, I'll add that to the list. I am thinking of focusing more on 17th century music, and going with more of a figures and rhetoric perspective as well as historical background. Currently thinking of things like Reincken's An wasserflussen Babylon, Strungk's ricercar (and the role of music in Lutheran Ars Moriendi), John Bull's hexachord fantasy, maybe a musical rhetoric one with a Buxtehude Praeludium etc. With Bach so far I have BWV 547 on the list, but BWV 542 would be interesting to do as well (and it has both harmonic and rhetorical elements to it!) These things do take more time to make so I will be churning them out at an extremely slow pace though.
@@joannescouchet7038 Hello! That is an amazing list of things to do! Keep it up :)
Do you have any material on the names of these motifs? It seems useful.
Dietrich Bartel, Musica Poetica
@@joannescouchet7038 thanks
the bottom score, cant help but notice at bar 95, b flat should be a flat
also 92 b flat should be b
Please, what are we to understand about the italicized expressions (mostly in Italian I think)?
These are just formal terms for these musical figures in Latin - Dietrich Bartel's Musica Poetica: Musical-Rhetorical Figures in German Baroque Music is a good introduction to the terminology and ideas here.
@@joannescouchet7038 Thanks. Awkwardly enough, I have never learned German. But it seems you have carved a path toward issues I have always wondered about, this rhetoric business. The language - music connection is a long and vexed topic. I know J.J. Rousseau totally changed his mind about it, thinking music could not POSSIBLY match language for expressive power; then saying the opposite (if you ask me where I learned this, ask. I can't retrieve it at the moment 😅)
@@musicfroth Oops, I forgot to paste the whole title of the book - it was meant to be "in german baroque music." The book is in English. Elam Rotem of Early music sources has a video on an earlier source of musical-rhetorical figures, that of Joachim Burmeister.
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мне не понравилось само исполнение