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What are interesting facts about J.S. Bach?

Open Discussion...give me your opinion. How does one go about playing pieces written by JS Bach on the piano?

  • As I've been preparing for my auditions for college, I've been studying a couple of selections from Bach's English Suites. These suites, written in the Baroque period, ...show more

  • Answer:

    There are several different camps when it comes to the discussion of how to perform Bach on a modern piano. In fact one of the best interpreters of Bach on the piano has a DVD on the subject. See www.angelahewitt.com. If you play the music as if on a harpsichord, then you are adding unnecessary limitations to the work. The pieces obviously came with limited markings on the music, this is where personal interpretation comes in. There is a level of style variation that is congruent with the music and over done would reach a point that is excessive, but the nature of the work is such that to play it in the style of say... Ravel would simply not work. In the end only the performer can say what is right, but the listener may be at odds with a performance that comes out as "eccentric."

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I think that you should do it how you see fit, however I do think it would be a poor decision to play something on piano-forte without the use of well-implemented dynamics (after all, it IS a "piano-forte")

Matthew C

GlennGould was the ultimate interpreter of Bach on the piano. I believe he recorded all of the keyboard works except those for the organ. He usually supplies a lot of information on the liner notes of his albums. You might try to look up some of these albums and see what he says about playing Bach on the piano.

Jim B

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