MATRIXSYNTH: J.S. Bach C Major Prelude & Fugue, Book 1, BWV 846


Saturday, August 08, 2009

J.S. Bach C Major Prelude & Fugue, Book 1, BWV 846


YouTube via AaronAndrewHunt

"Here's a rendition of Bach's C Major Prelude and Fugue (opening) played in Just Intonation on a Tonal Plexus keyboard. Obviously, Bach did not write this music to be played in Just Intonation (the "Well Tempered" part of "Well Tempered Klavier" has a specific meaning for tuning), so this is an experimental performance which uses pure 3rds and 5ths, natural 7ths in dominant chords, and harmonics reaching the 17-Limit in diminished chords. In several places, a common tone can be heard to 'bend' from one chord to the next (usually in ii-V progressions) where a pitch has to move by a septimal comma; the pitch is changing in real time by JND steps. This is a single take. I played only the opening of the fugue, very slowly ; ) This is for two reasons. First, so my fingers will behave and play the right keys, and second, so the sounds of Just Intonation can be savored a bit. Find out more about the Tonal Plexus at http://www.h-pi.com"

5 comments:

  1. Bach knew why he used well-tempered tuning for this ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh my god, perfect mathematics + music = vomit!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was amazed how quickly my ears acclimated to this!

    ReplyDelete
  4. In an imperfect world, a perfect tuning does not work.

    ReplyDelete
  5. why go to all the trouble to use JI with a sample of an instrument (piano) which absolutely does not work with it?

    if you really want to impress me, build a virtual tonewheel organ model which can be microtuned, so that all the harmonics of every note fall within the specific tuning.

    ReplyDelete

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