To-day we turn to Bach in D, and specifically the D major Prelude from Book I of his "Well-Tempered Clavier for the use and profit of the musical youth desirous of learning" (rapid-share / send-space).

It is not very polyphonic is it; particularly not at the beginning. Instead it points towards the music of the decades which were to come. And towards the end it begins to sound like an organ work, even.

Tovey wonders whether the bass note of the big chord at bar thirty-three should be an A (as is written in no fewer than three autographs) or a B (as "in the copies of pupils" and in his own edition). We wonder whether Mr. Iron has a view on that matter.

Here as contrast is a virile performance of the work on the harpsichord by another new comer, Hans by name. He was born in 1914 but is evidently still going strong after ninety-four years.


Besides playing Bach, he administered the Berlin Opera-House for many years and has published a number of books, of which several have distinctly political overtones:

"Music and Revolution" (1948),
"Battler for a German national music" (1953),
"Music in China" (1955),
"Jean Philip Rameau's Theory of Harmony" (1963),
"Premières I have Known" (Autobiography, 1986),
"Tasten, Taten, Träume" (Keys/Groping, Deeds, Dreams - Music and Politics between Utopia and Reality - another Autobiography, 2006).

To-day we present a lunatic rendition of what is a crackpot work in the first place: the "Fugue" in D major from Bach's First Book - well at least Bach began it as a sort of fugue, but half-way through he abandoned the idea and turned it into a French Overture instead (rapid-share / send-space)! Tovey gives an extraordinarily complex explanation of those dotted notes which have exercised members in another thread, saying that "the value of the dot varies in a way that cannot be well represented by modernising the notation." He further tells us that at many points - but by no means everywhere - "the tendency should be to sharpen the rhythmic jerk."

Who then among all our executants is likely in these circumstances to be authoritative? We do not know and had best offer a wide selection in this instance.

Hans whose virile rendition we present first is his being a battler for a German nationalist music and having ninety-four years of experience behind him probably the closest to the true Bach performance tradition. His interpretation is a striking one because he seems actually to stretch the bars! This sort of elastic rhythm is what makes the Viennese waltzes such as the Blue Danube so effective is not it.

Wanda having run a school in France should have known something about the French style, so here is what she makes of the work. In fact her solid rendition is the one we like best of all these.

The fascinating Samuel, whitewashed out of British histories of music by sinister functionaries such as Mr. Lebrecht, would probably given his background also be adept at the French style; his does in fact turn out to be a well-rounded interpretation, with a good grasp of form, but we do not know whether it displays any truly exceptional sensitivity; the piece is not the most suitable one for displays of that kind.

Rosalyn has a good reputation too, although we cannot tell whether it is deserved exactly: she plays the work very slowly and carefully so perhaps her timing of those dots is good. But she cannot resist inserting her own little twiddle on the final note.

We had not at first intended to do so, but let us now for good measure throw in Glenn. His dotted notes certainly differ from those of the rest, and about three quarters of the way through we hear him shouting in excitement even - we suppose Bach would have approved - but were there such creatures as Americans in his day?

We have not heard from Léon for some considerable time. How does he manage all these fine points we wonder. Is he still fumbling his way and out of his depth among the true masters?

I have no wish whatsoever to embarrass members any further with yet another Crackpot version of the D Major Fugue (Book 1), and it is only because Mr Grew has twisted my arm to do so so ruthlessly that I have little alternative to but offer...

Leon's performance.

Being an obvious beginner in the performance of Baroque music, it will be clear that the whole issue of dotted notes is one that has so far escaped his intelligence and understanding. Little wonder, then, that he simply plays everything as it literally presents itself in the score. He must have grown up as an organist because (like them) he "hears" what he sees written on the page rather than his performance of it. Why he remains unable to hear himself rushing away at bars 9-10 and again at bars 17-19 can only be explained by that assumption.

In the "Crackpot" performance, the bass C# on beat 3 of bar 14 hit me just as I was swallowing a sip of coffee, and I shall be sending Mr Grew the bill for dry-cleaning my trousers!

Wanda again charms us with her two-manual sewing machine (which, by then, must surely have been electric we assume). The interplay of her Loud and Not-So-Loud (almost in every phrase) reminds one of the warp and weft as it passes majestically from within the loom - and one can almost visualise her tossing the bobbin to and fro as she pulsates her way through this frankish exercise.

But she has one thing in common with Hans (even in addition to a liking for 16'-pitched strings) and that is her consistency in playing ALL the dotted figures THROUGHOUT as 7+1 (and that is, for me, just how they should be played).

But what can we say about Glenn?! Unlike Leon, he at least knows that a decision has to be made about the rhythm of the dotted notes. But because he cannot make his mind up whether the dots should be lengthened or not, he "plays safe" in a monumentally crackpot way by deciding to perform them with both rhythms alternately! Now who else would ever have thought of doing that - whichever ones are right or wrong, he is thereby sure that at least half of them must be correct (which is more than would have been should he have played them all the same way, but actually got them wrong).

Baz

We recall having ourselves submitted a crackpot version of this Prelude some considerable time ago on this very thread. Regrettably, however, it will now be lost to posterity and cast into oblivion because a) the Sendspace link will have expired, and b) we have since had completely to change our computer hardware and all such created files were "washed away" in the process!

Baz

Well thank you Mr Grew - I had quite forgotten how truly crackpot it was!

Baz

We cannot help wondering if - by chance - a twenty-sixth century detector might also be able to 'grab' (from the ether) our very own attempt at crackpotting the D Minor Fugue from Book 2? That was also washed away (for all its sins).

Baz

We are immensely gratified to learn that the Member thinks it worthwhile (despite its total crackpottery), and we shall perhaps give the matter some thought!

Hans certainly has everything twanging does not he? I cannot help wondering whether the 16' strings are a little "over the top" (rather than under the bottom) for a two-part Invention of this scale, but he does go for it in the right way.

Baz

P.S. Does the Member know of any twenty-seventh century detectors capable of reformatting the ether so as to retrieve from it the crackpot version we submitted previously of the D Minor Fugue (Book 2)? It would be a pity to donate the Prelude alone to the BL without accompanying it with the Fugue we feel.