Quite a lot of my students bring the works of JS Bach to lessons, which is always a delight. I often find myself directing them to various different sources to enhance their study of this music, so I thought I would put a few of these together for ease of reference. I hope you will find these resources useful and interesting. I am also hoping you will send me your links, which I will add to this post.
Since Bach’s music is contrapuntal, even in the simplest works, we need to know how to listen to, balance, blend and articulate two or more independent lines simultaneously. If we have been brought up on a path from the Anna Magdalene Notebook to the Little Preludes and the Two-Part Inventions and Sinfonias, we will be able to tackle the Preludes and Fugues from the ’48’, not to mention the suites. Before that, listen to what Rosalyn Tureck brought to some of the baby pieces (click here)
Resources for ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier”
Anatomy of a fugue (click here)
How to analyse a fugue (click here)
Ebenezer Prout’s analyses (click here)
Siglind Bruhn’s homepage (with analyses) (click here)
Cecil Gray’s analyses (not at all dry, poetic and rather lovely actually!) (click here)
Yo Tomita’s website (click here)
Performing Bach’s fugues on the piano (David Korevaar) (click here)
Dr. Philip Goeth’s website, containing much material of interest (click here)
Recordings
Anyone can trawl YouTube and find recordings easily. Here are just three (of very many) worthy of attention.
András Schiff’s recording of Book 1 (click here)
Samuil Feinberg‘s recording of Book 2 (click here)
Gustav Leonhardt’s recording of Book 1 (harpsichord) (click here)
Here are my suggestions for fugue practice from a recent YouTube video for Pianist Magazine
General
Here are some of my previous posts on related matters, containing links and bibliographies.
A User’s Guide (click here)
Baroque Articulation (click here)
Tempo and Rhythm (click here)
Dynamics (click here)
Practising contrapuntal music (click here)
Ornamentation Part 1 click here
Ornamentation Part 2 (click here)
Alfred’s excellent book on ornamentation – scholarly and yet easy to read and understand (click here)
Part 1 of Angela Hewitt’s YouTube video on Bach playing on the piano (follow links for the rest of this) (click here)
Here is Anthony Newman on playing Bach on the piano (click here)
Luke Norell’s thesis “Interpreting Bach’s Overture After the French Manner on the Modern Piano”, containing some useful information on Bach’s French style (click here)
(To be added to…)
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In Part 3 of my ebook series, I explore scale and arpeggio playing in depth. Included are many ideas for practising, as well as rhythm charts, practice charts, other interactive features and video demonstrations.
Preview or buy Practising the Piano Part 3
Click on “Preview” for a free preview or on “Buy” to purchase Part 3 of Practising The Piano now.
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For more information, and the catalogue to purchase individual parts, click here.
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As part of my research for Part 4 (on performance), I have devised a short (very short, actually) survey – Performance Anxiety among Pianists, the results of which I will collate and include in the publication. I would be most grateful if you would take two or three minutes to complete the survey. It really is very brief, and you will be completely anonymous. Whether you are a professional pianist, a piano student or play for your own pleasure your opinion and comments count.
Let me thank you very much indeed in advance for your time and input!