4 ms·

I disagree that Bach is simple (I'm not sure what pure means in this context). Bach wrote contrapuntal music. This means you can have two, three, four, or five

I disagree that Bach is simple (I'm not sure what pure means in this context). Bach wrote contrapuntal music. This means you can have two, three, four, or five independent voices that sum up to a whole while maintaining their individual lines. He also included techniques like inversions and retrogrades where the same lines occur backwards or upside down. And he included a great deal of symbolism and numerology in the music. The music is also, at times, very harmonically modern for his time. His music is often wildly virtuosic too — try playing the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue — it is a showpiece. "Simple" is just the wrong word.

fasterik 4y ago
"Pure" in this context means "without any extraneous and unnecessary elements". Google has a few different definitions for the word "simple". I don't mean it in the following ways: - easily understood or done; presenting no difficulty - composed of a single element; not compound I do mean it in the following ways: - used to emphasize the fundamental and straightforward nature of something - plain, basic, or uncomplicated in form, nature, or design; without much decoration or ornamentation - humble and unpretentious Keep in mind my comment was in the context of a discussion about postmodernism. I think that when compared with some of the more complex postmodern music, even the most virtuosic Bach pieces are simple. A couple examples: Finnissy - English Country Tunes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8VSRTl9tfw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8VSRTl9tfw Ligeti - Etudes for Piano - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHhZ2TzHlow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHhZ2TzHlow