Interpreting Bach at the keyboard

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Interpreting Bach at the keyboard

Paul Badura-Skoda ; translated by Alfred Clayton

Clarendon Press, 1993

  • : pbk

Other Title

Bach-Interpretation

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Note

Originally published: Laaber Verlag, 1990

Bibliography: p. [549]-558

Includes indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780198161554

Description

The ever-increasing number of performances of Bach music is a sign of its enduring vitality. Yet there exists a diversity of interpretation of a magnitude that probably applies to no other composer. Assessing the varying merits of these interpretational approaches and getting to grips with the sources and documents on which they are based can be extremely difficult for a modern performer. Paul Badura-Skoda, who has been studying and performing Bach's keyboard music for more than 40 years, here presents a host of insights drawn from his knowledge of the sources and of the problems of interpretation. He looks in detail at the various aspects of Bach's music, providing chapters on rhythm, tempo, articulation, and dynamics. He also examines the instruments for which Bach's music was intended, and discusses interpretational issues arising from this, as well as problems of sonority. The second part of the book is devoted to a comprehensive discussion of ornamentation with a detailed examination of each of the signs and symbols used by Bach. This discussion is prompted not only by its central importance to baroque music in general, but also because the author believes so much of Bach's ornamentation in current performance practice is monotonous and fails to correspond to the baroque style at all.

Table of Contents

  • Part 1 General problems of interpretation: an authentic 18th-century performance source - C.F. Colt's organ-barrels
  • studies in rhythml in search of the correct Bach tempo
  • Bach's articulation
  • dynamics
  • problems of sonority
  • problems of harpsichord and piano technique and of expressive playing
  • the Urtext problem - an imaginary interview
  • rendering the structure as a whole
  • Prelude in E flat minor and Fugue in D sharp minor, WTC I, BWV 853 - an analysis for performance. Part 2 Studies in ornamentation: the development of ornamentation in the 17th and 18th centuries
  • J.S. Bach's ornaments - some general remarks
  • pralltriller
  • appoggiaturas
  • the longer trill
  • Bach's mordent
  • arpeggios
  • the application of ornaments that are not notated
  • free embellishments in Bach's keyboard works. Appendices: some recommended editions of Bach's keyboard works
  • some textual and international problems in Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903
  • J.M. Gesner, "Johann Sebastian Bach as Conductor, Keyboard Player and Organist" (Goettingen 1738)
  • excerpt from the article "Takt" in J.G. Sulzer's "Allgemeine Theorie der shoenen Kunste", vol ii (Leipzig, 1774)
  • the dedication of Partita No 1 (BWV 825) and the dedicatory poem
  • Friedrich Blume and Hans Joachim Moser.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780198165767

Description

The ever-increasing number of performances of Bach's music is a sign of its enduring vitality. Yet there exists a diversity of interpretation of a magnitude that probably applies to no other composer. Assessing the varying merits of these interpretational approaches, and getting to grips with the sources and documents on which they are based, can be extremely difficult for a modern performer. Paul Badura-Skoda, who has been studying and performing Bach's keyboard music for more than forty years, here presents a host of valuable new insights drawn from his deep knowledge of the sources and of the problems of interpretation. He looks in detail at the various aspects of Bach's music, providing chapters on rhythm, tempo, articulation, and dynamics. He also examines the instruments for which Bach's music was intended, and discusses interpretational issues arising from this, as well as problems of sonority. The second part of the book is devoted to a comprehensible discussion of ornamentation with a detailed examination of the signs and symbols used by Bach. This discussion is prompted not only by its central importance to baroque music in general, but also because the author believes so much of Bach's ornamentation in current performance practice is monotonous and fails to correspond to the baroque style at all. Sometimes contentious, always stimulating, Paul Badura-Skoda's text conveys a passion for an informed interpretation of Bach's music based upon a recognition and respect for Bach's musical and intellectual intentions. Copiously illustrated throughout with music examples, Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard will take its place as a standard work for all students and performers of Bach's keyboard music.

Table of Contents

  • PART 1. GENERAL PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETATION
  • PART II. STUDIES IN ORNAMENTATION

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