Listening to Bach is the slowest way to enlightenment

[Everything]

Alot of people listen to the main theme, forgetting that good music depends on the counter theme, just like counter steering a motorbike. But who can write multiple melodies that compliment eachother yet can each be viewed as an independant melody.

 

Bach, the master of counterpoint has written alot of fugues. 1 Theme introduced, repeated with counterpoint, etc. The result is that multiple themes run together, complimenting eachother, forming a harmony. The relationship between these themes are the harmony itself, but the ability to distinguish each theme from the other is sufficient enough for a beginner who seek musical enlightenment in order to speak the language of the heart.

 

The enlightened one, Bach, knows that the theme is what most people pay attention to naturally, because the music resolves around it and gives emphasis on it. On a fugue, the theme and counter themes have other perspectives. They depend on eachother to form a harmony. The themes continue on their existence, relative to eachother, because they speak the same harmony. There are many harmonies. The first theme introduces the potential harmonies and combinations of themes.

Just like a friend might be totally opposite, yet you compliment eachother because you speak in the same harmony. Or rather, your themes compliment eachother.

 

So is life a harmony. To distinguish the diffrent themes in life, appart from eachother is the beginning. Our ultimate goal, however, is to enlighten ourselves by growing our consciousness to all the diffrent themes that depend on eachother and view them all as one piece of music.

 

I'm sure... That when god speaks, we shall not hear one voice, but many. All of the voices shall merge as one and no longer be distinguished from eachother. The harmony of from gods voice is eternal. Once you witness the harmony, you will just have to distinguish the themes that create that harmony and create manifestations.

Manifestations created by such enlightenement people, always keep harmony of all in mind. With a holistic view on everything, yet having great detail in complimentary themes.

 

I'm just kidding. Counter jokes, counter music, counter steering, counter topics, they're all the same. Blend together and become one big harmonic milkshake.

 

Try and mirror your vocal cords to the melodies you hear, while one who can manage to display all melodies in Bach's works plays the rest.

This gives me and and and

But the guy playing is tranquil, like

Edited August 27, 2011 by Everything

[~riverflow]

Oh, oh, oh... BACH! I'm a bit of a Bach nut and went a bit crazy last year getting a sizable chunk of recordings of his. But most of all, I love his cello suites (followed by the violin sonatas & partitas) because of how much he is able to do with just one instrument. And yet at times it's easy to forget that you are listening to just *one* instrument. I love the economy of those solo pieces. I actually own over ten different recordings of the cello suites...

 

It took me a long time to warm to The Art of Fugue, which I found very difficult, until I heard Jordi Savall's recording, which has some degree of variety in the instrumentation, but also is played at a slower tempo and seems more spacious so you can explore all the contrapuntal nooks and crannies of it more easily (at least that is how I feel about that recording).

 

Here's a lovely fugue from the G minor sonata for violin:

 

[Everything]

It took me a long time to warm to The Art of Fugue, which I found very difficult, until I heard Jordi Savall's recording, which has some degree of variety in the instrumentation, but also is played at a slower tempo and seems more spacious so you can explore all the contrapuntal nooks and crannies of it more easily (at least that is how I feel about that recording).

Exactly! You're the first person I hear this from...

 

I once had a dream about bach, but he was an old chinese man. He said that reason why he never included tempo in his work is because it could be played in all kind of tempo's. Especially the slow tempo on a fugue fascinates me because it contradicts the very definition a "fuga". Yet the melodies still succeed tonescape the grasp of your mind, like water. Even on slow tempo. Here is a slow one

 

When you play a fugue yourself, on piano or keyboard, it is alot easier to notice the harmony that all the individual melodies form together. You can play with the rythm and tempo that way and discover the music so deeply. Its great fun. Since I've been trying to figure out fugues, composing music becomes easier and easier.

 

I think the fugue is all about the process of creating music. Exploring all the possibilities in a single musical theme.

Edited August 27, 2011 by Everything

[~riverflow]

How odd, but beautiful-- sounds like that was run through paulstretch?

 

I went to university ages ago with a degree in music composition, but counterpoint was-- well, my weak point LOL I had written a few fugal passages in places, but it was never something I was able to sustain for long-- it takes an extra special talent to write fugues!

 

Today I mostly write ambient music these days, and one of my fascinations is slowing things down tempos to the point that time appears to stand still (this isn't entirely new-- Wagner had something similar in mind in many of his more sublime passages).

 

Getting back to Bach though-- I like Glenn Gould's second (1980) recording of the Goldberg Variations, where the opening Aria is taken at a rater unorthodox tempo, much slower than anyone else I've ever heard (he linked the tempi of all the variations together with certain ratios, which actually makes a lot of sense).

 

[LBDaoist]

Bach's violin concertos are no joke. There is real power in them.