Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul Badura-Skoda ,  Alfred Clayton
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Clarendon Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 4.00cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   1.056kg
ISBN:  

9780198161554

ISBN 10:   0198161557
Pages:   591
Publication Date:   01 October 1993
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

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."

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