Interpreting Bachs Well Tempered Clavier

Author : Brian Dykstra
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 974 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (29 download)

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Download or read book The Interpretation of Bach's Well-tempered Clavier, Book 1: a Study in Diversity written by Brian Dykstra and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 974 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the present century a great deal of scholarly research has been devoted to the stylistic performance of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Much of this research concerns ornamentation, an area of performance in which scholars have indeed made contributions. The harpsichord and the clavichord--popular keyboard instruments in the Baroque period--are today enjoyed by a large segment of the concert-going and record-buying public, thanks largely to the efforts of scholars who have advocated the revival of these instruments and artists who have devoted themselves to performance on them. Today the leading record catalogue lists approximately as many recordings of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier on the harpsichord or clavichord as on the piano. Scholars have also given considerable attention to certain problems dealing with rhythm in Baroque music, and they have improved the textual accuracy of editions of Baroque works. However, there are several major areas of performance in which the student of Bach's keyboard music can receive little or no significant help from scholarly research. These areas are tempo, articulation and phrasing, and dynamics. The obvious reason for this informational void is that Bach, like most other composers of his time, hardly ever notated indications for tempo, articulation, phrasing, or dynamics in his keyboard works. Given Bach's lack of directions for performance, it is only natural that editions and recordings of his keyboard works often reveal greatly differing approaches to the interpretation of this music. It is the writer's belief that exposure to the interpretative ideas of more than one person can help the student to discover the way in which he can perform a keyboard work by Bach most effectively. The student should not be limited to the ideas of his teacher, one editor such as Busoni or Mugellini, or one recording artist such as Gould or Landowska. I have selected a collection of keyboard pieces by Bach which is encountered by nearly every piano student at one time or another: the first volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Using a number of practical editions, commentaries on the works, and recent recordings, I have determined which are the most important disagreements in each prelude and fugue in the following areas relating to performance: (a) the general character of the piece, (b) tempo, (c)articulation and phrasing, and (d) dynamics. Discussion of these disagreements constitutes the main body of this dissertation. My principal goal is to provide the student with a number of performance possibilities for each piece. Perhaps the student will even be stimulated to search for possibilities yet untried. The proposition which underlies this entire study--that there is more than one way to play Bach--is not original, but the study is intended to supply firm support for this proposition. Resources used include: (a)practical editions of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book One by Czerny, Tausig, Bischoff, Reinecke, Riemann (only partially available), Busoni, d'Albert, Tovey, Hughes, Risler, Mugellini, Rontgen, Casella, and Bartok; (b) relatively recent recordings by Landowska, Kirkpatrick, Galling, Demus, Gould, Tureck, and Martins; and (c)commentaries by Spitta, Riemann, Schweitzer, Fuller-Maitland, Macpherson, Gray, Landowska, Keller, and Bodky. The fourteen practical editions which were chosen by no means constitute all of the editions of The Well-Tempered Clavier. In fact, a list published in 1942 gives no less than 106 editions of the work printed up to that date. However, the fourteen editions selected span over 100 years, from the Czerny edition of 1837 to the Casella edition of 1946. There are also half a dozen nationalities represented in the group of editors, although seven of them are German. The eight recent recordings included in the study constitute most of the recordings of the complete Well-Tempered Clavier presently listed in the leading record catalogue. The commentaries span 85 years, from Spitta's biography of Bach published in 1880 to Keller's book Das Wohltemperierte Klavier von Johann Sebastian Bach published in 1965. An important secondary goal of this study is to ascertain whether there are any new approaches to the preludes and fugues in the modern performances as a group as opposed to the practical editions, which are representative of past eras of Bach-playing. These new approaches are summarized in the final chapter. In the presentation of the disagreements over interpretation, the practical editions and the modern recordings are always treated as two separate groups. This method of procedure has aided in the fulfillment of this important secondary goal. A further secondary goal is to compare the suggestions for performance made by modern scholars with the techniques actually used by modern performers. This is done in Section 2 of Chapter I and Section 2 of the final chapter. Every attempt has been made to avoid over-simplification, in the discussions of individual pieces as well as in the final chapter. For example, if in a particular passage most practical editions suggest a broad use of crescendo, a few editions show only one dynamic level, most recording artists use terrace dynamics, and one or two employ a discreet amount of crescendo, statements such as the following are avoided: "Unlike the heavily-shaded practical editions, modern performers use terrace dynamics in this passage." Tendencies are recognized only as tendencies and not as unanimous practices. This study is intended primarily as a reference guide for pianists interested in a particular prelude or fugue. In order that the reader receive maximum benefit, it is recommended that he have at hand an Urtext copy of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book One, with numbered measures.