"Bach was the first 12 tone composer" (video) + moog synth

[Jazz+]

Here is a fugue by Bach that enters the realm of atonality played on a Moog synthesizer by Rosalyn Tureck:

 

(part 3 of 4:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeGskVvgbjQ&mode=related&search=

 

 

[SK]

Interesting to hear Bach stretching in that direction. Interesting, and deep.

 

On a more somber note from the classical world, Pavarotti just died, age 71.

[Legatoboy]

Jazz+

 

Nice. . . I think I'm gonna have a look at that one though I have listened to it many times. I love the Richter version of it!

 

lb

 

[Dave Horne]

I think we should make a distinction between 12 tone in the atonal sense and simple (or not so simple) chromaticism that just happens to use all 12 tones.

 

There are other examples in Bach that are highly chromatic but I would not label them atonal.

 

There's an invention(?) by Bach that starts melodically (A minor) C,D,E,F,C,B,D#,E,Bb,A,C#,D and so on (no interval is greater than a Perfect 4th) with a descending bass line starting on an A.

 

It's highly chromatic. I bet it uses all 12 tones but it would really be better labeled as highly chromatic and not atonal. (I'm writing this music from memory as I can't find the 'book'.)

 

It is interesting to note just how few Schoenberg Music Fairs there are (if any) compared to Bach Music Fairs.

 

[Dave Horne]

I found the 'book'... Well Tempered Clavicord, Vol II, prelude 20 (A minor).

 

Between the two voices in the first measure it uses all 12 tones. The upper voice however uses only 10 of the possible 12 tones in the first measure. Rats.

[TaurusT]

This doesn't sound atonal to me at all either. More like, chromatic bach, its very harmonic.

[Floyd Tatum]

Most interesting quote from Schoenberg. I watched that Rosalyn Tureck video - she makes a compelling argument, that Bach's music is concerned with organization, which is why it works on any instrument, as compared to other composers who write for specific sonorities, and so their music wouldn't work so well on a synth, for example.

 

 

[Dave Horne]

Carlo Gesualdo, a Renaissance composer, was also well known for extreme chromatic writing. (I actually remembered that from my college days and verified that on Wiki.)

[kanker.]

I think that even for the chromaticism of the Baroque era, getting all 12 tones into 3 bars would have been highly unusual. Very eerie melody.

[SK]

I think that even for the chromaticism of the Baroque era, getting all 12 tones into 3 bars would have been highly unusual. Very eerie melody.

 

Yep. However one characterizes it, Bach was into some heavy stuff here.

[marino]

I found the 'book'... Well Tempered Clavicord, Vol II, prelude 20 (A minor).

 

One of my very favorite Bach pieces. I played both the prelude and the fugue (which is also stunning, although very diatonic) in my acoustic/electric Bach album, a few years ago.

 

In some tunes, like the B minor Fugue played by Tureck, Bach was trying to demonstrate the possibilities of the "well tempered" tuning by the use of all 12 semitones in a theme. Of course, he was also using them in the framework of traditional harmony (although fast-modulating), which makes it even more of a challenge. Putting it in the context of a fugue theme makes it an almost impossible task - *and* coming out with such poetic and deep music at the same time is something only Bach could achieve.

[delirium]

This doesn't sound atonal to me at all either. More like, chromatic bach, its very harmonic.

 

exactly,I played a lot of Bach and even if something was "atonal" it still sounded harmonic. He's master of harmony.