philosopher avecdominique paganiPaths ofPraxisBoard
FREN
Support
Board(Sub-Saharan) Paths of PraxisSupport

Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach · German composer (1685–1750) · 1685–1750

Appears in 94 videos · 153 passages, 53 of them in depth.

Play the 40 passages in a rowMake a board

Summary

Dominique Pagani makes Bach the model case of learned music that stays in step with popular music. Gigues, bourrées and sarabandes run through his work, all the way to The Art of Fugue, and a peasant of the time recognises the gigue in the finale of the Sixth Brandenburg1. He often comes back to Bach's regular, binary metre, which "swings" like jazz. Bach makes up for this monotony with highly complex harmony and melody, taking risks at the edge of dissonance2. He stresses that Bach's originality comes from imitation, since he copied Vivaldi note for note3. He also quotes Bach's words "whoever applies himself as I did will do as well", which he sets against the Romantic theory of genius4. He recalls that the Romantics, with Mendelssohn, rediscovered the St Matthew Passion after it had been forgotten. He links Bach to the Lutheran chorale and to Protestant discipline. He reads The Art of Fugue closely, with its canon by augmentation and diminution and its blue note, which he calls modern5, as well as The Musical Offering, improvised on Frederick II's theme6.

  1. 1#2 From Lévi-Strauss to Nerval, on music3 Dec 2020 · 9:51
  2. 2Discussion with Aliocha Allard (29 March 2017)26 Feb 2019 · 3:27
  3. 3#5 Happiness versus the death drive in music11 Dec 2020 · 40:37
  4. 4#6 The jazz variation… by Beethoven15 Dec 2020 · 1:51:20
  5. 5#3 What is called modern music?3 Dec 2020 · 6:45
  6. 6#9.23 “Ruled like music paper!” Bach, Nerval, Lévi-Strauss9 Jun 2021 · 3:28

Summary produced automatically from 150 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Portrait: BachWho is this?

Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. […]

Read the article on Wikipedia

Text: Wikipédia, CC BY-SA 4.0, excerpt · Portrait: Elias Gottlob Haussmann, Public domain

Series · 16 Dec 2014B for Bach
  1. 3:29His music shares with rock and jazz a regular, binary meter: it swings.
  2. 5:06He trained himself by copying Vivaldi's concertos: his originality comes from imitation, a fine dialectic.
  3. 6:30He balances rhythmic constancy with harmonic risk-taking, bordering on dissonance.
  4. 7:49His originality is better perceived by listening to Beethoven and Bartók.
  5. 8:57The Art of FugueHis counterpoints are the higher mathematics of music, but his pieces bear the names of popular dances, in tune with the peasant ear.
Series · 22 Jun 2022From Bach to the Pygmies
  1. 1:57The Well-Tempered ClavierHe devotes to the tonal scale, then in the process of stabilizing, a monument founded on equal temperament.
  2. 9:11The emblematic musician of learned music and polyphony; Pygmy polyphony is as complex as one of his fugues.
  3. 15:39An obscure musician charged with cantatas, he became known as an improviser at the organ and improvised a fugue on a theme by the King of Prussia.
  4. 18:28Brandenburg Concerto No. 6Taken as an example of popular music: the finale is a gigue, the most learned writing at the service of the lightest music.
Series · 25 Mar 2021#17 Interpretation
  1. 8:59His scores indicate almost nothing: musicians were emerging from millennia of improvisation; the invariant is what he wrote.
  2. 10:08The Art of FugueWith no indication of tempo or instrumentation, the work can be played on any instrument without losing its coherence.
  3. 29:47The Musical OfferingImprovises a fugue on the royal theme at Frederick II's court.
Series · 15 Dec 2020#6 The jazz variation… by Beethoven
  1. 11:26Coffee CantataHe wrote few secular cantatas; devoting one to coffee shows its arrival was an event.
  2. 21:40Only his genius populates sonic space with a single violin or flute line.
  3. 1:32:41The Art of FugueThe opening shows each voice imitating the previous one around a single theme.
  4. 1:51:20"Whoever applies himself as I did will achieve as much": no romantic theory of genius.
Series · 3 Dec 2020#4 Sound ghettos
  1. 13:56The Art of FugueMusician of the code whom he pushes to the extreme by feigning to transgress it; the blue note of the canon in the Art of Fugue.
  2. 43:20St Matthew PassionThe "boss"; forgotten at his death, he is rediscovered by the Romantics, who create the vogue for baroque music.
  3. 47:46Brandenburg ConcertosInvariant meter but complex rhythm, syncopations of the horns in the first Brandenburg concerto.
Talks · 26 Feb 2019La Fausse Note, a film by Aliocha
  1. 0:43His learned music extends and deepens popular patterns: sarabande, bourrée, gigue, gavotte, dances as popular then as a zouk is today.
  2. 3:27Binary music that compensates for rhythmic monotony with an incredibly complex harmony and melodic writing.
  3. 5:01Learned music but not elitist: a peasant recognized in it the rhythms played at his wedding.
Series · 15 Jun 2022Tchaikovsky: from the steppes to the Midwest
  1. 3:01The only one to have written for solo violin works that fill a musical volume greater than that of large ensembles.
  2. 4:07Brandenburg ConcertosThe apex of the concertante concerto with several soloists, where the soloists converse with one another like honest people.
  3. 13:28The Bach-style fugue develops and ornaments a single theme.
Cycle 9.2 · 9 Jun 2021#9.23 “Ruled like music paper!” Bach, Nerval, Lévi-Strauss
  1. 3:28The Musical OfferingComposed on Frederick II's royal theme; his most didactic works are paradoxically the most poignant.
  2. 28:56The Musical OfferingThe facsimile of the first page illustrates the video.
  3. 1:47:45St Matthew PassionThe aria "Erbarme dich" expresses mourning and dejection.
  4. 1:48:51Cantata BWV 21 "I had much sorrow"From tragic oboes to the jubilant aria of the forgiven sinner, accompanied by a cello that frolics.
Series · 3 Dec 2020#2 From Lévi-Strauss to Nerval, on music
  1. 9:51Brandenburg ConcertosMusic emblematically scholarly that remains in phase with popular music: the peasant recognizes the gigue in the finale of the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto.
  2. 19:45The gigue remains familiar to the peasant of the time, but not to a Chinese ear: it is a cultural grid.
  3. 24:08Even his organ works contain dance rhythms familiar at the time.
Series · 3 Dec 2020#3 What is called modern music?
  1. 6:45The Art of FugueThe Art of Fugue has not aged a day: blue note, chromaticism, modern sensibility in the midst of the Ancien Régime.
  2. 15:32InventionsStays within Italian metre but takes harmonic risks unmatched elsewhere, major and minor seconds in the thirteenth invention.
Talks · 26 Apr 2015The music of history
  1. 4:52Bach's Lutheran chorale, which slaves imitated in creating the spiritual
  2. 29:13Brandenburg Concertosconstant meter down to the last chord; he enriches harmony and melody through polyphony
  3. 1:24:42improvises a fugue in several voices before the King of Prussia on a royal theme
Series · 10 Mar 2021#16 Programme music, pure music
  1. 5:42Toccata and Fugue in D minorEmblematic representative of pure music, so pure that Disney only depicts it through abstract lines.
  2. 43:37The Well-Tempered ClavierDebussy's Preludes pay tribute to his preludes.
  3. 1:01:00His aria is played at funerals in Sweden.
  4. 1:15:31The Art of FugueOne finds in it motifs and meters borrowed from dance, such as the gigue.
Cycle 5.2 · 26 May 2019#5.7 Nature or landscape?
  1. 5:51His repertoire is played on period instruments by the early-music specialists.
  2. 30:24A man from before the Revolution, he attributes his perfection to work and states that anyone who applies himself will do as much: humility and transmissibility.
  3. 1:39:25His Passions are appreciated for their musical value.
Talks · 18 Jun 2016At the bistro (part 1)
  1. 20:19The Art of FugueCited among what he listens to.
  2. 53:45Paid as a consultant to test the first pianos.
  3. 57:38St Matthew PassionFor Bach, it was the cantata of the week; it is the romantics, with Mendelssohn, who rediscover it.
  4. 58:20The Well-Tempered ClavierBeethoven always kept it on his piano.

Search any author, concept or word across all of Dominique Pagani's videos and writings