Hi, I'd like to present to you my new overture on the fascinating notes B-A-C-H, inspired by some sketches by Beethoven . Please read the remarks in the video description ... I hope you will enjoy it:
https://youtu.be/2jF1CNsXj7c?si=JJqqvOEzGBcEJw28
Please share yout thoughts :-)
Gerd
Replies
Hi Gerd,
I quite enjoyed this! There were a few places during the introduction where I thought things were dragging a bit, but the main Allegro completely banished any such thoughts. The unfolding of the development is fresh and unpredictable, and there are lots of unexpected tonal twists (the motto, of course, is pregnant with them!). I was wondering, however, about the fermata over the pizzicato strings (1st and 2nd violins I think, not sure about violas and cellos) just before the last Adagio espressivo (I think was the marking). Not sure if that's a Finale "hack", or if there is a missing arco in there.
In any case, nice work! Thanks for sharing.
Liz
Thank you, Liz, I am glad that it speaks to you. Regarding the fermata, you may be right. I should have written "ritard" instead. I just wanted to take a breath here ...
In case I wasn't clear, what I was getting at is that anything implying a prolonging of the note makes no sense over a pizzicato note. I was wondering if you wanted those to be bowed - though if you wrote a ritard instead, that would clear up the confusion as well. Cheers!
like a number of your Beethoven re-imagings, this one is a good deal of fun once we get into the Allegro and the orchestration seems generally apt. Occasionally I again hear some harmony which seems odd - for instance is the F in violin 1 bar bar 160 not supposed to be an E or something? Perhaps there is a precedence for this in Beethoven but nevertheless......
As for the fermata, I assume this should be shown over the woodwind and cover all staves (in Dorico, the default is for a fermata to be global which makes the most sense). Not that such little matters of notation interest me much when the intention is clear enough.
incidentally, by sheer coincidence, I was at an oboe quartet private garden concert yesterday which had B-A-C-H as the theme, starting needless to say, with Bach's interminable own triple fugue from the Wohltemperiertes Klavier.
Which fugue was that? I don't recall a triple fugue from WTC, nor any based on B-A-C-H from those two sets.
I assume that he refered to the Finale of the Art of Fugue ...
yes sorry, the guy waffled for ages about what was being played and was talking about the WTC but the actual piece was various sections lasting almost half an hour from Kunst der Fuge. As you know, I'm not terribly interested in Bach and wasn't paying that much attention to the oboist's introduction