3 ms·
Listening on period instuments can be revelatory. The first movement of Beethoven's Waldstein sonata, which is murky on a modern piano, is comparatively cleare
by rectang 6y ago
Listening on period instuments can be revelatory. The first movement of Beethoven's Waldstein sonata, which is murky on a modern piano, is comparatively clearer on the fortepiano. The fortepiano has much faster and more pronounced decay (in the Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release ADSR formulation) and weaker bass, but that punchiness works well for the Waldstein as it makes it easier to hear the rhythm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fhmm_hfZAo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fhmm_hfZAo
As a complement to period instruments, I found that Switched-On Bach by Wendy Carlos also made me listen to Bach in a new light. Physical low-register instruments do not speak all that clearly — not even today, and not in Bach's time either. Compare a string bass with an electric bass — or even more starkly, a synthesizer bass!
The bass register in Switched-On Bach has much cleaner, more identifiable pitch than Bach would have heard from a period ensemble playing one of the Brandenburg Concerti. But is one actually more "true" to Bach than the other?
My feeling is that what Bach heard in his head were closer to a synthesizer version than a baroque chamber ensemble version. Because even though a good composer strives to write for a medium and compensate for the strengths and weaknesses of actual instruments, the essence of Bach is counterpoint and harmony, not orchestration.
- Freak_NL 6y agoWendy Carlos is a well-known name (mostly for the Clockwork Orange soundtrack I think), but her recordings are not as accessible as they ought to be. That is, there are no (legal) digital downloads or streaming options for her oeuvre, and the CD's and records have been out of print for years. I only recently discovered Switched-On Bach (and the other three albums that followed: Switched-On Bach II, The Well-Tempered Synthesizer, and Switched-On Brandenburgs), and you are right; these are really interesting performances of such well-known classical works. Worth exploring! And for a light classical snack: she created a 'sequel' to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals with 'Weird Al' Yankovic in 1989!
- gregsadetsky 6y agoSide 1 of Switched on Bach on IA: https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach2 https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach2 Side 2: https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach1 https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach1 I also (weirdly?) found them hosted on the site of the Computer History Museum: Side 1 https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/sound-recording/2016/05/102695358-04-01-acc.mp3 https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/sound-r... Side 2 https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/sound-recording/2016/05/102695358-04-02-acc.mp3 https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/sound-r... An incredible masterpiece.
- isoprophlex 6y ago> https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach2 https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach2 Holy shit this sounds so much ... fun! It sounds so incredibly joyful on those synths! Thanks for posting, marvelous
- rectang 6y ago> her recordings are not as accessible as they ought to be I found an article from 2019 about that: "Where is Wendy Carlos?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23394457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23394457