Bach Goes Wacky (Bach Chorale Music Analysis) - Inside the Mind Bach

[@MusicMattersGB]

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[@evelyneduval6441]

Fascinating! Bach is exploring the rules to their extreme possibilities and even transgressing them...showing us the infinite possibilities of composition!

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I remember watching this months ago and I was so lost I didn't make a comment. Today I followed along with the sheet music since I had downloaded it (merci beaucoup) and I looked at the first three bars, and returned to the video to interpret what the heck I was looking at. And then I was amazed with your chordal knowledge, and the rapidity of your thinking process. Instead of being overwhelmed, I am inspired to learn the chords better. I see you have 218K subs. And I can relate to everyone of them, and I appreciate that they are all very respectful. I have never been trolled on your channel. Again, you attract good people who only want to learn about music. There are several channels of You Tubers with music channels, and I quit watching them for music theory. Unless you have an advanced doctorate in 21st century musical education, it's a waste of time. I have never wasted one minute here. If something was too advanced, I accepted it and tried to learn what I could. I am sure that I am speaking for a small minority of your followers, since by the comments there are many accomplished musicians of all genres that watch your lessons. They appreciate learning from the village organist. Music is a part of society, and I never learned it's importance until after 65 yoa. It's never too late to learn. I have my weekly piano lesson today. I am taking this in to discuss this piece. And then I will get busy learning my Melodic, Harmonic and eventually Natural minor scales in the next several weeks.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Good luck with the ongoing journey

[@CaptJackAubreyOfTheRoyalNavy]

Chorales like these are Bach at his most harmonically creative. I love these analyses of Bach harmony.

[@MusicMattersGB]

The Chorales are fabulous

[@ONeirda]

The moment I like most in this so refreshing video: 15:02 ! It's precious. It comforts me so profoundly after a frustrating evening with trying to find the hidden "logic" (?) in BWV 999, to be reassured that not everything beautiful always must be explainable by the rules of the art. 😅 Not being extremely fluent in English, I had to look up what "wacky" means. And now that I have understood the meaning, I very much agree: Yes, at times J.S.B.'s compositions are simply wacky, and with that verdict I now can take them unconcernedly as what they are. Thank you so for your very valuable contribution. 🥰

[@MusicMattersGB]

It’s a great moment of liberation when one accepts that!

[@cliveaitkenhead]

Revisited this video yet again. What a masterclass it is.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Most kind. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@markcox5385]

I’d love to see how a harmony teacher who didn’t know it was JSB’s original mark this!

[@MusicMattersGB]

Interesting prospect!

[@isaacshaw1596]

Bach goes Wacky is a great title! Never could be more true.

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@davidwhite2949]

Fascinating, I could think about this all stuff all day Thank you for this excellent analysis

[@MusicMattersGB]

It’s a lifetime fascination

[@ruariwilson9696]

and absolutely fabulous analysis - thank you

[@MusicMattersGB]

A pleasure.

[@charlottemacdonald4167]

Thank you for this wonderful insight into Bach's mind. I always knew he was responding to his inspiration and turning the music to serve it; the essence of creative composition. Your appreciation of Bach is evident. I feel the same way. But in my exposure to other musicians, I don't feel it very often. I was able to hear Pao Casals conduct Bach and he felt that same appreciation; every note was important to be brought out and sounded. He woke up the musicians. It was a miraculous experience.to hear Bach in what one knew was the way he intended. I should be joining Music Matters next month with my first course. The money will be there. All the best!

[@MusicMattersGB]

Bach is a genius. You’ll be most welcome at your Music Matters course. Enjoy!

[@herrickinman9303]

Bach's chorale settings are not whimsical experiments in harmonization of a chorale tune. He's setting the TEXT of the chorale.

[@MusicMattersGB]

@herrickinman9303 Of course. And this is about how he does that.

[@stephenbashforth8257]

Bach was a jazz musician - those V7s - great jazz harmony!

[@MusicMattersGB]

The similarities are amazing. You may have heard Swingle 2 jazz up Bach.

[@jarodvmusic]

Amazing! A lot to think about in this one.

[@CalebePriester]

My favorite series is back! Let's go!

[@MusicMattersGB]

Enjoy!

[@cliveaitkenhead]

What a fantastic video - thanks so much. I spent hours studying it, replaying and making notes etc. Maybe we think too diatonically and need to develop an instantly accessible understanding of the chromatic relationships within the keys to progress. I do anyway!

[@MusicMattersGB]

That’s certainly a useful thing to do. Glad the video is helpful. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@jayducharme]

Thanks again for another wonderful analysis. When you first played those last four bars, I thought someone had detuned the video. I had no idea what I was hearing.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Remarkable bars

[@isaacshaw1596]

In the 3rd complete bar, 4th beat, you have an accented passing note in the bass assuming it's an F major chord. In that case the A in the soprano part has to be a harmony note so what's the Bb doing because it's not a passing not. Is it an escape note?

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely correct on both issues.

[@Bass60134Player]

I consider myself pretty familiar with how to write chorales. I have no idea what is happening in measure 2. It almost seems in the last 2 measures that Bach is trying to imply the phrygian mode.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Measure 2 is great in the use of that borrowed II7 from F minor followed by diminished 7th to I in G minor. Then at the end I love his used of the borrowed IV (Eb minor chord) preceded by its dominant 7th.

[@BassPlayer60134]

@@MusicMattersGB I have been pondering this since I first watched the video (this is Jeremy, btw, on my other account). Could it be that there is a transcription mistake and that the first alto note of measure 3 should be an E? That would give us an E diminished 7th which, while still weird, at least is conventional. I looked up this choral to follow along on the video and every edition matched yours but it’s a theory I can’t put aside.

[@MusicMattersGB]

I’m confident that what’s printed is correct.

[@mustuploadtoo7543]

This was good but could be improved if you showed an example of the appogituras becoming suspensions instead just to clarify the difference between the two 👍

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@chrisisbell3080]

That was really funny, but also instructive. Thanks! Laugh whilst you lean.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Glad it’s helpful

[@malachia8590]

Interesting the borrowing note concept,,it s something that Barry Harris speaks a lot of

[@MusicMattersGB]

It has huge potential

[@dawntaylor-moate9272]

Taking note to avoid harmonising this one then! 😂 Fantastic video.

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀😀

[@geoffhurrell8478]

It’s worth pointing that this harmonisation comes from Cantata 48, where Bach sets the words: ‘Should it be so that punishment and pain follow sin’. Bach often such chromatic ‘word painting’ to depict mankind’s disobedience to God.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@newprodjek514]

wonderbar

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@dankleffmann2473]

❤

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@isaacshaw1596]

Don’t you think it’s unusual how he only uses that semi quaver idea once. I did wonder why that stuck out to me.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Good observation

[@gustinian]

The wackiest (Bach-ing mad?) chorale I know of is BWV 715, here again it seems Bach is trying to break the chains of harmony.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Yes that’s another amazing example

[@mymatemartin]

Baching mad

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀😀😀

[@newprodjek514]

BACHY WACKY

[@MusicMattersGB]

Glad it’s helpful. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@eplumer]

wow, i am glad i was not assigned that analysis

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@dr7246]

I always chuckle when people repeat the old “Bach was old fashioned” trope. In my mind, those who still think that are only paying attention to the surface details in Bach’s music, not the lower level details

[@MusicMattersGB]

There’s plenty of depth to investigate

[@afrodiameter]

Bach is such a great example of the benefits of developing a daily writing/composing habit. He had to crank out chorales every week and one can imagine at some point he exhausted all the 'usual' possibilities and so started exploring more exotic territory, for no other reason than to stave off his own boredom. That said, there's probably some amount of 'glorifying God' motivating him too. :-) And you, Mr Green, are a treasure! Thank you for another wonderful lesson.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Good observations and thanks for your support. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@lucadeieso4815]

You are missing the point that Bach’s chorales must express the meaning of the words. Under this rich musical surface, there is a deep connection with the words behind it and so Bach's emotional involvement because of his faith. This chorale is not something you can do to overcome "boredom", there are other examples of ordinary chorales, because here the text is "Christ lag in todesbanden", and the melody is written by Luther himself.

[@MusicMattersGB]

That is indeed central to what we’re examining here.

[@odiajulius2349]

❤

[@afrodiameter]

@@lucadeieso4815 I'm not missing the point. Both things can be true.

[@FrankMGarcía]

❤

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀