How I Study Bach Chorales

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@saadhaddadmusic 5 ай бұрын

I've been studying Bach's chorales for years. It's my go-to when it comes to re-discovering functional harmony. I used this chorale as a basis for my own unreleased composition I wrote for the Gaudeamus Festival called "Selig Licht," or saving light in German. I analyze scores from the point of view as a composer that is trying to gain insight on how to apply what I'm hearing to my own work. There are many things about my analysis that overlap with how one might go about this in a "music theory class" setting, but this is not my primary motivation for this video. 🔗 LINK to Bach chorale with an actual choir singing it instead of me fumbling around on the keyboard: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jn-yl5SGmLxkg9Usi=y981Yhwy7F9qzweu 🔗 LINK to @forrestmusictheory incredible Roman numeral analysis shown briefly in video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r566lptnd8qmerssi=lWJmBaR0s4rbzByQ

@FranzKaernBiederstedt 11 ай бұрын

Hello from Bach's city, Leipzig/Germany, and hello from the University of Music and Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig (Germany's oldest music conservatory and the second oldest in Europe after the Paris conservatory), where---being a composer and music theorist myself---I'm teaching music theory and ear training. Thanks for your interesting video on Bach's chorales. It's interesting to me and joyful to see that a contemporary American composer with roots in the middle east is still interested in what studying Bach's chorales could teach you. His choral settings are souch gems and always full with surprising and astonishing details from which there is a ton to learn about counterpoint, harmony, musical interpretation of the words in the text. Some commentators have already pointed out that the melody itself is not from Bach himself (that is the case in the least of his chorales), but he changes the original melodies most of the times like he does here to accomodate them to his purposes. The original melodies mostly stem from the period of the reformation (around 1520-1570) and are not in a modern major or minor key but modal (like this melody, which is Dorian). Bach's musical language isn't modal any more (at least not in the historic way from the Renaissance era), and so it's always interesting to see how he changes the old melodies to be some sort of hybrid between old modality and modern (baroque) majos/minor tonality. Of course, the main overall shape of the melody stays more or less the same, because the chorale serves the purpose of inviting the congregation to sing along with the choir in a cantata or oratorio, using the well known Lutheran hymns. Let me say something about the text: You already mentioned that, of course, Bach didn't put the English translation to music but the original German text by Luther. But your observations were not too far away, because something like the e-minor chord in root position to the English word 'hope' falls on the German word 'Freud' (joy) in the original text (Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin---literal translation: With peace and joy I pass away [i.e. I die]). It's Luther's song version of the biblical Canticum Simeonis, Simeon's praising song. Simeon was a very old man who saw the little Jesus boy in the temple in Jerusalem and thus, knowing and believing that this little Jesus child would turn out to be the saviour of the world, was able to let go of his old, dreary and heavy burdened life and die in rest and peace, because now that he has seen the savior all of his burdens are taken away. That's waht the chorale is all about. In my opinion it's one of the most beautiful chorales by Martin Luther, you definitely should seak out the original version of it and maybe some of the settings of this hymn by composers from Luther's time (Johann Walter, Ludwig Senfl, Caspar Othmayer...) to get an idea of the original modal quality of it, compared to the baroquisized version by Bach. Back to this e-minor chord and Bach's setting of the first melody phrase: Considering that it's a d-Dorian melody originally, the e minor chord per se is not that unusual in this key, but in Bach's more major/minor tonality it surely pops out, but not so much, as I would say, as a dark minor chord, because in the modern key of d minor (instead of d Dorian) you just wouldn't have a regular minor chord on the second scale degree to your disposal, because of the b flat. So the Dorian e minor chord is already a somewhat uplifting, bright color in a regular minor tonality. And this bright, uplifting color is what strikes me the most in this first phrase. And---as you've showed wonderfully and rightly so in your video---everything in Bach's setting of this first phrase is going upward, is drawn into the heights. And, of course, that is what happens to Simeon: His spirit is lifted up, enlightened, freed from every weight and burden that pulls him down, his soul is ready to 'take off and fly'. It is interesting that even you use an edition with English translations one still is drawn to to conclusion that Bach put all his conscience and efforts in interpreting the text of the chorale by means of his composition and not only would write some random setting of the melody that just sounded beautiful. He wanted the music to be able to express the theological content of the text, and that's the case with almost every single one of his chorale settings. It's mindblowing!

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

Franz, this is very generous and EXACTLY what I was hoping for after I hit publish and realized my “text” chapter of the video could have used this kind of beautiful context. Thank you so much 🙏🏽

@dr.rolanddavis 11 ай бұрын

@FranzKaernBiederstedt Yes, indeed. The e minor chord is striking due to its unexpected sound & link to the past & modal era instead of the b6 scale degree and its tonal quotidian place in the ii min7 (b5) … *and the conspicuous ascending bass line does indeed paint the meaning of the text. I wish you health and joy and many more rapturous musical moments. -Dr D @SaasHaddadMuaic Thank you for the video. Bach chorales (and JS in general) will forever, for me, be emotional and inspiring. I wish you health and joy and many more rapturous musical moments. -Dr D

@apelmazao 11 ай бұрын

This is gold!!!!! Thanks!!!!

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

I tried my best, glad it’s useful!

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

Take the last bit about "text" with a grain of salt. The original German doesn't translate exactly as outlined by the editors, but my general point about Bach's "subversion" regarding the use of minor chords is still valid (at least in my opinion). Let me know what you liked/didn't like about the format of this new video. I'm putting it in a new playlist creatively entitled "Score Study with Saad" which right now includes my Gloria Coates Symphony No. 4 analysis and this Bach chorale. P.S. if you are a native German speaker please don’t hesitate to point out inaccuracies and I’ll make those corrections in the description.

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

P.P.S. The original melody is by Martin Luther, not Bach.

@henryw.1732 11 ай бұрын

I'm here for the score study format!

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

@@henryw.1732 they are harder to make but I’m a man of the people 🙏🏽

@wilsonbecker1881 11 ай бұрын

FWIW, I don’t believe Bach thought of minor chords as sad and major chords as happy. That association is pretty localized to our time and culture. Great video though, thank you!

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

@@wilsonbecker1881 yes yes of course!

@adrianbede-fazekas 11 ай бұрын

You deserve way more subscribers. This was excellent

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

glad you enjoyed it!

@CompleteBachWorks 11 ай бұрын

Great video, thank you very much!

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

🙏🏽

@forrestmusictheory 5 ай бұрын

Thanks for the shoutout!

@saadhaddadmusic 5 ай бұрын

Amazing analysis man!

@robertosion6099 20 күн бұрын

Bravo!! Bach always!

@jonathanwingmusic 7 ай бұрын

Great video! I agree about not doing excessive Roman Numeral analysis. I'm only just learning how to study these chorales which is why I'm here, and having come from a more pop/jazz background it had been tempting to mark up every beat with chords and roman numeral analysis. I learned a few things here and there, but mostly I found it rather confusing because of the density of harmonic rhythm changes, contrapuntal voice movement, and frequent chromaticism, relative maj/min keys, and full modulations. I found I would spend a lot more time sweating over which number to call something which leaves the presumed key, to the point I was enjoying the process less and walking away not having learned much at all. More recently I have tried a different and more zoomed-out global approach, I think similar to what you are doing here, which is to ask myself the bigger questions about the structure and what is going on, what is the story Bach is telling? I will play it first at the piano (which is great for sight-reading!) and I am trying to sing each line separately which is hard but I think worth it, because it also gives me a greater sense and appreciation of how these chorales would've been performed. Then I will do a general strucutral highlight of phrasings, patterns, and note the type of cadences. I will also write more generally the functional harmony rather than the specific roman numberals on every. single. beat. I am discovering this is a better way to think about it, to view chords (whether diatonic or chromatic) by their function in creating movement and telling a story. For example the V7 and viiº chords both serve a dominant function (or of course secondary dominants in many cases to point elsewhere), and I am discovering when you understand the cadences as well as contrapuntal voice leading, it's mentally simpler to look at it from the lens of their function knowing that most likely the exact chords chosen had more to do with smooth voice leading and creating good melodic lines. Plus Bach and many of his contemporaries didn't really sit around thinking about chords in the way we do. So for this reason I don't find the ultra-granular approach of roman numerals on every beat to be terribly helpful - more confusing than anything when you take a step back. I will still use them sometimes on specific downbeats, cadences, and to take note of secondary dominants like V/V. Finally I will highlight and circle anything I find particularly interesting or unusual. Not sure if I'm doing any of this right as I'm entirely self-taught and still have much to learn on my journey into the Chorales, but music should be played and enjoyed and I feel like over roman-numeral-analyzing everything makes me forget why I'm doing this in the first place! ;)

@saadhaddadmusic 7 ай бұрын

Awesome 👏🏽

@Sr.Rakthai 7 ай бұрын

Direct fifth in the outer voices at 8:30. I know it's concealed by the upper step, but how often are we more free to do that? Isn't the "ultima" direct motion inevitable while we'd look to avoid in the "penúltima"

@azdruval8536 11 ай бұрын

It’s interesting the fact that we study Contrapuctus Severo in school with all the rules in Fux style at least me that I studied Dubious method but all this corals broke many rules of what is supposed to be correct. Perhaps we should study more this kind of works,of course depends the differences between music theory programs around the world I find inspiration from Rach and Tschaikovsky too

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

Rules meant to be broken 🤓 but knowing the rules is helpful

@יהודה-ל7ו 9 ай бұрын

@@saadhaddadmusic Exactly, it's like skiing on the groomed slope, but every now and then its fun to leave it.

@יהודה-ל7ו 9 ай бұрын

Rach is an add up of Bach and Rachmaninoff, I suppose...

@rodterrell304 7 ай бұрын

Thanks Saad, very helpful.

@saadhaddadmusic 7 ай бұрын

Glad to be!

@Todzuum 11 ай бұрын

Id recommend for sure doing a Roman numeral analysis , and then improvise over the chords.

@bahlalthewatcher4790 11 ай бұрын

Be honest: how disappointed in us are you that this video has 1,300 views but the linked performance of the chorale only has about 300? Who among us didn't do the homework???

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

Listen to linked chorale everyone it’s way shorter than my video 🤣 that’s my PSA

@alessandropradella4457 11 ай бұрын

It seems to me like the piece is in A minor from the beginning and just starts on the IV, because there is no B flat... however the V chord (E) is minor, which gives a modal Aeolian sound.. Weird and interesting!

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

It’s super nuts right ?! Also your idea makes sense given that the d minor chord is a pick up note.

@MusicaAngela 5 ай бұрын

I would recommend Nicholas Baragwanath’s book The Solfeggio Tradition to help understand that the melody is modal and you can use hexachodal solfeggio to analyze the melody. (Dorian) The crazy chords are a great example of Bach applying more tonal harmony to this modal melody.

@saadhaddadmusic 3 ай бұрын

Very very cool 🙏🏽

@falstmusic 7 ай бұрын

Great work

@saadhaddadmusic 7 ай бұрын

🙏🏽

@LangsamComposing Ай бұрын

I study but I struggle to implement into my pieces. How do you implement the works you’ve studied and how have you learned from it?

@JeffGabriel-kf4qe 6 ай бұрын

Very interesting video. I do believe, however, that this is a Bach Chorale only in the sense that Bach harmonized it, and used it in some of his cantatas. The melody line was written by Martin Luther, and the text was also written by Martin Luther from Simeon's Prayer, Nunc Dimittis in Latin. See the famous Bach Cantatas website maintained by Aryeh Oron, which has details of all the chorales Bach used. And the English wording of the verse shown in the score on the video is the fourth verse of this chorale.

@saadhaddadmusic 6 ай бұрын

🙏🏽

@azdruval8536 11 ай бұрын

I saw your video with your coral in master portafolio,will be great if you make a video describing more the Harmonical and Contrapuct approach you took… It was a functional harmony? When I try to write chorals its difficult to me find balance between rules and find my own voice…

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

It’s based on functional harmony though not exactly, but the voice leading rules are very similar in that piece

@Rumifaz 6 ай бұрын

Great video! Just one thing concerning the text: Bach had the German text in mind when it comes to a relation between music and text. The English translation is not really literal. Actually, it differs a lot from the orignal (Mit Fried und Freud fahr ich dahin...).

@saadhaddadmusic 6 ай бұрын

🙏🏽 yes of course this was addressed in the comments

@JeffGabriel-kf4qe 6 ай бұрын

Rumifaz, if you look at the text of the four verses of this Chorale, as shown on the Bach Cantatas website, you'll see that the translation in the video is of the FOURTH verse. "Mit Fried und Freud fahr ich dahin" is the start of the FIRST verse. The translation of the fourth verse that he shows is decent and I believe fits the syllables of the music.

@willbrooksy478 9 ай бұрын

Hey Saad. Are you able to look at these chorales and hear them in your head? Just wondering because I’ve been learning music notation and sometimes I can’t always hear the chorales perfectly in my head first read

@saadhaddadmusic 9 ай бұрын

Not always. Music is not about being perfect anyway.

@johnbjorgenson5481 8 ай бұрын

@@saadhaddadmusicExcuse me if I’m wrong here but If your a professional composer aren’t you expected to be able to pick up a Beethoven symphony for example and read it as if you were reading a book? I always thought score reading quartets, symphonies etc was expected in a university or conservatory setting such as Juliard or Curtis.

@reerr7289 11 ай бұрын

Great. But what is it with the constant 1. Prelude? I mean, it's a lecture not a commercial. I personally am very much distracted by this. What is the idea? Is this supposed to create a nice background atmosphere? Is it a generational thing? I'm 50....

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

I thought the same actually, especially halfway through the video. I’m not a video editor by trade 🤣 thanks for your note. No, it’s not a generational thing.

@phillconrad4128 11 ай бұрын

Yes, I came here to say the same. The WTC Prelude 1 kept taking me out of the musical world of the chorale being analyzed. Better I think to leave the silence, or fill it with a repetition of the chorale itself.

@dougroat8154 11 ай бұрын

I am not a musicologist But on the point of using a minor, ( rather than major), chord; is there not a psychological link between MAJOR = objective expression; versus MINOR = subjective, personal, inner expression & feeling ??

@juwonnnnn 2 ай бұрын

👏

@saadhaddadmusic 2 ай бұрын

Thanks J.S.!

@katiegaston133 11 ай бұрын

more please 🫶

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

🙏🏽

@azdruval8536 11 ай бұрын

3:48 sounds very dorian 🧐

@Jwellsuhhuh 11 ай бұрын

yeah thats what i was thinking but it makes more sense that its borrowing from a minor

@saadhaddadmusic 11 ай бұрын

Cool! I think either way you hear it is valid. I didn’t think about that Dorian connection. Nice.

@FranzKaernBiederstedt 11 ай бұрын

The original melody by Luther actually IS Dorian. Bach takes these old melodies and modernizes them to a ceratin degree, and his tonal language isn't modal any more like in the Renaissance era where this melody stems from. But it's always interesting to see how Bach---with the means of his baroque major/minor tonality---deals with the original modality of these old melodies. That the first phrase of the melody makes a cadence on a instead of on d is not very unusual in a Dorian melody. Historically speaking there are two versions of the Dorian mode, an authentic and a plagal one. That means that there are two ways of building a melody in the Dorian mode. Authentic melodies are more uplifting, they often have the root of the mode as the lowest note of the melody while it goes up an octave or even more, thus showing a great deal of energy, optimism, strength, while plagal melodies mostly have the root note in the middle of their range. The melody circles around the root, perhaps going up to a fifth over and down to a fourth below the root note. A difference between authentic and plagal melodies also lies in the so called 'repercussa' or recitation note, which is the second most important note in the mode after the root note and which is a note---always higher than the root note---where a melody often tends to circle around, gravitate to, make cadences on it. The repercussa of authentic melodies usually is the fifth above the root note, in plagal melodies it's only the third. So here in this chorale we have an authentic Dorian melody with the fifth a as its repercussa. Often melodies make their first cadence at the end of the first phrase either on the root note or on the repercussa, in this case on the repercussa, hence the feeling of the chorale 'borrowing' from the key of a minor. But having cadences on other notes than the root note of a mode doesn't change the fact that the hymn as a whole is in d Dorian. Not every phrase of the song has to end on the root note.

@azdruval8536 11 ай бұрын

@@FranzKaernBiederstedtgreat comment 😊