Bach thread

[Zoot Allures]

Thought by many great violinists to be greatest piece of music ever . When great violinists speak I listen


The Chaconne forms the longest movement of the piece by far, making up roughly half of the entire partita. It draws upon the Baroque dance form known as a chaconne, in which a basic theme stated at the opening is then restated in several variations. In Bach’s Chaconne, the basic theme is four measures long, short and simple enough to allow for 64 variations. From a stern and commanding mood at the beginning, Bach gradually increases the complexity of his theme, mixing in various compositional effects. Some twists upon the theme are spacious and grand; others flow nimbly. Fast runs and large interval skips are frequent, requiring much dexterity from the performer. Bach also calls forth changes in emotional intensity, as some variations are dominated by long notes and others by many, more urgent short notes. Bach builds up his work over 256 measures, finally restating the theme at the end with new, even stronger harmonies.

A century and a half after Bach composed the piece, Johannes Brahms wrote:

The Chaconne is for me one of the most wonderful, incomprehensible pieces of music. On a single staff, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and the most powerful feelings. If I were to imagine how I might have made, conceived the piece, I know for certain that the overwhelming excitement and awe would have driven me mad.

 

[Insidious Von]

I thought it was Jenna Fischer playing that piece, Bella Hristova looks a lot like her.

Musical theory aside, the piece nearly did drive Brahms insane. A less conservative composer may have expanded the format to make it less daunting, not Brahms. He was too awed by Bach, he transcribed for piano, strictly for the left hand.

 

[Zoot Allures]

I thought it was Jenna Fischer playing that piece, Bella Hristova looks a lot like her.

Musical theory aside, the piece nearly did drive Brahms insane. A less conservative composer may have expanded the format to make it less daunting, not Brahms. He was too awed by Bach, he transcribed for piano, strictly for the left hand.

What about this piece is so daunting? Why is it considered such a great intellectual achievement ?

 

[Insidious Von]

The chaconne was the Italian version of the French Minuet. A stately dance written as a short piece as a intro to something bigger. Bach blew it up into something monstrous with different tempos and variations that made it fiendishly difficult to play. As you said, Bach took it to 256 measures, sheer madness in his day. Beethoven followed suit with his monolithic Grand Fugue, which he meant as the ending of a quartet. The musicians howled, so he wrote a simpler ending and left the Grand Fugue as a stand alone piece.

Brahms did one better, he wrote a Chaconne for a large orchestra. The ending of his Symphony No.4...he never wrote another symphony. It's a shame to break up Brahms 4th, but it is that quaint Italian dance taken to it's most Germanic extreme.