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Bach's 2nd Prelude and Fugue in c minor (Book 1) at: http://www.savefile.com/projects.php?pid=171724 The sound quality isn't quite perfect, and I hit a few wrong notes, just ignore those, a helpful critique, I think, will help my playing a good bit!
"Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time."
-Albert Camus, Jim
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Very nice! A few comments on the Prelude: - I hear that you are strongly accenting the 1st and 3rd beat of every measure, up until measure 20 or so. Do you like to do it this way? It's fine and it's driving, but you might consider not accenting the 3rd beats so strongly. Rather than thinking of each measure as two unit (2 beats, 2 beats), perhaps think of each measure as one whole unit (4 beats). I might like to hear a small accent on the 3rd beat, but I'd put the brunt of the accent on the 1st beat, so that you get some driving pattern like DAH duh Dah duh, DAH duh Dah duh, or something like that. - I like how you slow down before the presto. That's really great. - After you slow down before the presto, take your time getting into the presto. I mean, start the presto as slow as you ended the allegro, and speed up quickly through the first few beats. The way you do it now, you just start so suddenly with the presto, and it just doesn't feel right to me, but that may just be my taste. - Also, in terms of the presto, don't slow down so much towards the end! It feels to me like one of those wind-up dolls that's winding down... it gets slower and slower and softer and softer. Keep the pulse going presto presto presto, and then when you get to the adagio, roll the first chord and THEN get slow. - For the adagio, the runs should be faster. I know it's adagio, but think about it like this: the first chord (8th note) should be the equivalent, time-wise, to 8 of the shorter notes. So however fast or slow you play the first chord, you have to make sure that you pay careful attention to relating that tempo through the entire adagio, and that will mean speeding up the short notes. - In my score, the section after the adagio is marked "allegro", but you play even slower than the adagio! At leats in my score, the beginning and the end are both marked allegro, and I take this to be an indication that you should start and end around the same tempo (disregarding a small retard at the last measure or two). Also, in Bach's time, these "tempo" indications like Allegro and Adagio also carried other musical meanings aside from simply tempo (this changed around the end of the 1700s), so "allegro" means "merry", and "adagio" refers to an almost religious, ornamented passage. A few comments on the fugue: - starts off very nicely. You bring out the voices very well, and you have a very nice, even touch - be careful when you get to measure 13 - you started to rush here. You started to rush some more at measure 16. You started to rush some more at measure 19. You started to rush some more around measure 22. So the tempo by measure 22 was noticeably quicker than the beginning. (FWIW, I always rushed here, too. ) - Also in measure 14, when you started to rush a little bit, the left hand started to get loud and choppy. Overall, you do a good job with articulation, but you might like to pay a little more attention to making sure that articulations remain constant throughout the piece. So, for example, the left hand in measure 13 should have the same articulation in measure 14. The middle voice in measure 25 should have the same articulation in measure 26. You know, small things like that. - You slow down quite a lot at measure 27. It's not really that you slow down, so much as you immediately change the tempo to one that is much, much slower. I know you are trying to be expressive and poetic here, but it just doesn't make sense to me. I myself put a small ritardando there, but if you play it so slowly, then it just doesn't make sense. It's as if I were reading a sentence to you, and I weeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeee to suddenly speak one word very slowly. - I like your ornament on the last note. I hope you don't feel bogged down by all of my comments. You really played these both very well, and I think you could play them even better. Thanks for sharing your music with us!
Sam
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Haha! The tempi!
Well, Im glad that you commented on that (by the way, thank you very much on your comments, they are very helpful)
In my own home, when I am just fiddling around, I tend to get a little 'wild' with my tempi. Needless to say, I wouldn't play this the same way in a concert hall. I would stick to the score. But I have always felt that this piece in particular is very abstract, and very modern for its time. And I like to exaggerate this by modifying my tempi to sound more free, sometimes as if it has no meter. Now I agree with most of what Bach wrote, and in all seriousness would play it much differently. But when I am alone, just relaxing and having fun, as in this recording, I tend to make things a little... different.
I'll tell a little story about my crazy tempi:
The first time I met my current teacher (Mrs. Betty Hadidian), I came in with the Ravel Prelude and a few Debussy preludes. And in the Ravel, she tore me apart!, Because my tempo was so free, and almost meterless. So I sat down and played it again, pretending that I was at some great concert hall, trying to make it right. She said, " Very good James, what put you into this mind frame? " I said, " Sometimes I have trouble realizing that this is Ravel's piece, and that it was written in the 'impressionistic' era. I have an idea of what is right, and intend to play it that way, but sometimes, just for fun, I play it as if I wrote it in the 21st century.
... just thought I would share that.
But yes, I agree with much of what you said. And as for the Presto section, I used to play this with the D coming directly after the low g, with an accelerando until arpeggiated chord. But then my teacher lent me Tureck's Recording of this. She stalled and highlighted the g, and it just seemed right to me. Obviously I exaggerate it a bit here, But that would be one thing I would have to disagree with at this point in my playing experience.
"Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time."
-Albert Camus, Jim
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Maybe not a technicall opinion but i must say i really like both works, but i must say Fugue omg i love it ^^
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... anyone more comments? I would like as many opinions as possible!
"Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time."
-Albert Camus, Jim
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I haven't read through the other comments, so sorry if I'm repeating.
The prelude was pretty good. Around the 48 second mark, do not hold the upper notes - the musical line takes care of itself and doesn't need those notes held. At the presto, it seemed to be too fast too quickly. Personally I like to start around my first tempo and then within the first four or five notes bring it up to a presto tempo. Also, the low G prior to the presto run seemed too long - there is no fermata on it, it should be more or less in tempo. In the "improvisatory" runs at the end, don't give precedence to any one note - you had a few cases where you held one or two notes longer than the others. While these runs can and should be slow and free, the notes should be of equal value. The end also seemed too slow to me.
I did not like the articulations in the fugue. I don't have the score in front of me, but I've always played it and heard it with the first three notes of the subject more connected with the third note being staccato. Yours was much more detached with a legato on the third note - seemed to be almost the opposite of how I think of these articulations. It just kinda grated on me after a while. Watch your entrances and exits from the subject - for example, around the 23 second mark, you didn't play the last note of the subject in the left hand - it just kinda left me hanging. Around the 50 second mark, your thirds needed work in the right hand - they were very uneven. At 1:08, is that low G supposed to be so short? It seemed too staccato for my taste and just dropped out. I usually hold it a bit longer. I liked the tempo, except it slowed down a little too much at the end for my taste. I usually like to slow it down a bit in that last subject statement in the bass, but then jump right back in a tempo for the finish. I liked the ornament at the end, but you might want to play it a little faster than the preceding eighth notes to distinguish it as an ornament.
What you are is an accident of birth. What I am, I am through my own efforts. There have been a thousand princes and there will be a thousand more. There is one Beethoven.
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Just my two cents:
I think the tempo in the prelude could be somewhat slower and more flexible. There is always the danger with this prelude that it starts to sound mechanical - and to my mind, kind of irritating with all those semi-tone figures in thirds and sixths. The real trick is to make it sound lyrical, yet still period-appropriate (not too romantic). One thing to note is the "allegro" marking after the 'presto' (in the Urtext edition). I would interpret this to mean that one returns to the original tempo after the presto, with a retard only the last measure or so for emphasis.
I'd have to agree with 8ude about the articulation in the fugue. on the main subject (C-B-C-G-A and it's transpositions), you are putting a staccato accent on the final beat (1st beat of the following measure. This has a "hiccup-like" effect that, to my taste, does not serve the theme well. You might want to experiment playing the fugue theme much more legato, carefully making sure you don't clip the ends of phrases, but instead round them off and sustain for the full eighth or quarter note value. Once you've gotten used to playing it completely legato, then you can start adding some more portamento, but still keeping the shape of the phrases without accenting them too hard.
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Sorry - my first wasn't clear enough. Regarding the fugue - it's not just the hard accent on the first beat of the measure - it's the very short staccato that precedes it. That's what gave the phrasing a "hiccup-like" effect I was talking about. Try the articulation a few different ways, and see if you can hear the difference.
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