J.S. Bach: Sinfonia No. 6 in E Major (Teaching & Performance Videos)

[@trevjr]

I really enjoyed this. I recently started rereading the inventions and sinfonias as I have discovered in my old age how profound Bach is with just a few voices. I listen to the violin and cello sonatas with Gould of course and just think they are so amazing. I think as a musician I could sense what is going on underneath the piece but to have it explained so well is such a joy! Any video that makes me go downstairs and play the piece has to be great. As a complete Gould fanatic I was surprised at the end when you mentioned him. I think Gould always has a good reason to play something really fast like the gigue of the 1st partita, I have always felt that Bach gives you the tempo in the notes somehow. I listened to the Giordi Savall version of the Art of Fugue for many years, often going to sleep to it and fell in love with Contrapunctus 4. It was so melancholy and sweet I would listen to it over and over. Then on KZbin a few years ago I discovered Gould playing it at this insanely fast tempo. I was horrified. At first I was mad at Gould for destroying my piece. But I kept listening to it and heard this wonderful dance in it, now I sing along with it and enjoy it. It is possible to enjoy the same piece at vastly different tempi? I think so and it just shows the greatness of Bach, as you do in this video. Thanks.

[@SallyChristianMusic]

Hello trevjr, thank you for your warm words about this video. I also appreciate your thoughtful and interesting observations about Bach, recordings, and Gould. I agree that, especially with Bach, there is a big range of tempi that will work to deliver a valid and compelling performance. 🌟 With best wishes to you and with your playing.🎵

[@nicoleaube4729]

Great comment!

[@ginagiannini7871]

Great tutorial - thank you! I have played this piece for years. Now, I will play it with more understanding, and hopefully, more beautifully.

[@SallyChristianMusic]

Hello Gina, thank you for your kind and thoughtful words! I really appreciate hearing that the tutorial was helpful, and expanded your understanding of the piece. All best wishes to you and with your playing!

[@renovarwwis7943]

Thanks for this post. I played this piece for RCM exam long time ago in high school. But my teacher never taught me ANY of this. I never understood the piece, and basically just machine gun practice and played it. Now 20 years later I am revisiting the piano, and cannot but regret that I never learned it. I look forward to more of your videos as I get back to this instrument this time hopefully with more thorough understanding. It is amazing the tools we have now (compared to 20 years ago) such as youtube where we have wonderful teachers posting videos on every subject including piano.

[@daphnema9154]

I enjoy all Sally's lessons of Bach sinfonias, which are so helpful. Sally is the best teacher on line I should think. I hope Sally can do more of Bach's sinfonias for us to follow.

[@SallyChristianMusic]

+Daphne Ma Hi Daphne, and thank you for your very kind words! I will be making more Bach Invention & Sinfonia charts and companion teaching videos in the next year. I appreciate your interest and your encouragement for more Sinfonias!

[@daphnema9154]

+SallyChristianMusic Thank you so much for your reply Sally. I watch your Bach sinfonia lessons 4- 5 times each, and try my best to remember and follow your instructions when I practice. Looking forward to your new sinfonia lessons!

[@pianistjustforfun]

Thanks for sharing your great knowledge about this little masterpiece, which many pianists fail to see... Greetings!

[@Cesaep90]

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Greetings from Argentina

[@SallyChristianMusic]

Hola César, Saludos y muchas gracias! Thank you for your kind and much appreciated words. Best wishes to you!

[@joeblue6325]

Very inspiring and revealing overview of complex theory for Bach's magic.

[@SallyChristianMusic]

Hello Joe, thank you for your wonderful comment! I really appreciate your beautiful and thoughtful words. All best wishes to you. :-)

[@LinhPhan-ut9wm]

i really like your lesson ,thanks you!

[@SallyChristianMusic]

Hello Linh, thank you for your very nice words! I'm glad you liked the lesson, and I wish you all the best with your piano playing!

[@octavioperez1101]

a very good analysis of this great piece by Bach, I played it a long time ago and now I watched some videos on KZbin and yours is the best, very well explained!!

[@SallyChristianMusic]

Hello Octavio, thank you so much for your generous and much appreciated words! I'm glad you liked the analysis and explanation, and hope you will play the piece again. :-) Best wishes to you!

[@BachFlip]

Its a marvel how Bach gets away with it sometimes! Who else could write a passage containing consecutive harmonies of a fourth, a ninth, a seventh, a fifth, a seventh, a fifth, a ninth and then an augmented 4th and still make it sound 'right'!!! If I had written that in my harmony class I would have been taken outside and shot probably! I think because Bach's melodies and overall harmonic structures are so strong is one of the reasons this kind of thing works (that, and of course the contrary motion too!) When I studied jazz, we learned about playing 'outside' as it is called - playing melodies that momentarily don't fit the underlying harmony. Its kind of similar to what Bach does here in that you can make a 'wrong' idea sound 'right' provided the idea is melodically and harmonically strong in itself, and is played like you meant it to sound that way. Amazing music! Thanks Sally!

[@SallyChristianMusic]

+Chris Benton Thank you Chris for this comment, and for sharing the interesting and valid parallels to jazz and playing 'outside.' Best wishes to you!

[@liquidmotion09]

Chopin's chromatic ornaments to the melody are also very jazzy

[@carlnikolov]

I find it strange how the third entry is in the alto range? Can you consider that a redundant alto entry? And again at measure 6... because you're supposed to repeat the third entry in the tonic not the dominant, and not in the range of the soprano or alto voices...

[@therensdns31415]

With no absolute hearing, I'm always confused when people say F (as well as here E) are bright whereas g minor and e flat are religious. Why so specific during the time of equi temperament? We clearly cannot reconstruct how keyboards were tuned at that time and even the well tempered ness was definitely not the equi temperament that we had today, and isn't the specific tonality that you and many other talk about, transcending the mere difference between major and minor, something only discernable at that non equi tempered historical period? I can at the very most sense the difference when playing the scale

[@alger3041]

Dear Sally, Having gone through a number of your Rachmaninov Op. 32 videos, I decided to look to see what else you had posted. I saw these analyses you gave of various Bach Two Part and Three Part Inventions. The Three Part in A Major, which is particularly dear to my heart as I studied it as a youngster, caught my eye so I decided to have a look see just to find out what you might have to say about the piece. For me as I contemplate this piece in totality (which gives me particular pleasure) I bring to mind the overall form, the expounding of ideas at the beginning, the climactic moments in the middle, and most importantly, the summing up at the end. Details of each line matter little to me at this point; I am far more concerned with the wonderful totality of effect that this particular piece gives me. (I have long contemplated a recital that I might give, perhaps really, perhaps hypothetically, which would almost surely open with this particular piece.) I make slight changes in the measures immediately prior to the C Sharp dominant pedal; in the previous measure I play E and G Natural in the alto rather than E Sharp and G Sharp, and in the first half of the measure containing that C Sharp pedal I play in the bass B Sharp and D Sharp rather than B Natural and D Natural. I agree that in conception that this is a particularly advanced piece, comparing to many movements in the Well Tempered Clavier. Indeed, for the A Major set in the first volume, it is a serious thought so substitute this Invention for the Prelude that stands in that place, as I consider this a much better piece. (I actually like the A Major set in the second volume much better and would make no substitution there.) As for your playing of the piece, I would strongly suggest that you would consider pulling back on the tempo and adopting a more leisurely pace, just so that you and your listeners can get to better enjoy the many (well described) beautiful features you refer to. By the way, as I write this, I happen to be 78 years of age, so I am offering you a degree of experience of a lifetime in music. I have done composing, and presently work as an accompanist. All the best to you. William Zucker [e-mail]

[@alger3041]

This lengthy comment of mine applies to the No. 12 in A Major Sinfonia, which I wax wildly about. I don't know how it came to be on here; I have no particular relationship with this movement.

[@scottbiggs8894]

First, thank you for your videos. It's so very nice to see interpretations and analysis of pieces. But I strongly disagree about losing the voices with the overlapping notes. The separation of the soprano and alto voices in the cascading suspensions is maintained by making sure the releases are exact (and to a lesser degree the familiarity of cascading suspensions). Over-using the pedal is what muddies the voices, not the relative volumes of the voices. Furthermore I doubt Bach was trying to teach students anything about volume. These pieces would have been performed on harpsichord or organ, instruments that don't have such fine-tuned dynamics. Of course you could argue that the inventions are only meant to be practiced, not performed; in which case the clavichord would have been the instrument of choice (which does have note-specific dynamics).

[@matthewchen4989]

I have the shortest comment

[@isabellllee]

I keep on hearing the breathe of a man filming😂 This video helped me articulate and interpret the music very well!

[@SallyChristianMusic]

Hello HyeRyeong Lee, thank you for your nice words about the lesson, especially that it helped you to articulate and interpret the piece well! FYI: My more recent videos have improved audio in all aspects. :-) Best wishes to you!