Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Some days even J.S. Bach phoned it in

From an organ prelude in G minor. Twelve bars.

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That kind of thing can be powerful if you've properly prepared the audience for it emotionally up to that point

context aside that is pretty funny

wonder if mozart ever "phoned it in"

In the day a passage like that would have been pretty terrifying. They were not accustomed to that kind of tight chromatic movement.

And that's not the only time he phoned it in, either. It seems to me that once you get away from the most well-known and popular Bach harpsichord and keyboard works, and look at the miscellaneous pieces, you start running into some fairly long stretches of what sounds to me like fairly mindless note-spinning on endlessly repeated patterns. It's just not very interesting writing, IMO, and you'd never be able to predict his great music, if that was all that you knew.

I'm assuming that stuff is mostly from early in his compositional career, but am not sure. And some of it may be falsely attributed, too.

And some of it he might have expected you to add your own improvisations.

As a comparison, I have a copy of the score to Handel's Messiah, at times it's just a melody and a figured bass

I think it's OK if every piece you put out there is not a manifestation of pure genius. I can cut him some slack. Dude had to prepare the singers for this Sunday's cantata, write NEXT Sunday's cantata, work on other pieces in the hopper, and then there were all those children...

I agree and I am not particularly a fan of Bach music but I am a fan of his massive ability. I think every person who is serious about becoming a good pianist, or perhaps even "just" a proficient one should spend some time studying Bach.
Maybe his works should even be included in the basics, thus : Scales, Arpeggios and Bach.
He can teach the fingers to walk. Truly a giant. And, not only those children, but that wig......

The kind of fast repetitive pattern stuff I had mind isn't the kind of thing that was used as a basis for improvisation during the Baroque era. So, no, I don't think that was the expectation. It sounds a lot like a written-out improvisation already.

I agree that the greats sometimes "phone it in"... I just don't think this is an example. I listened to it to get the full context (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMSAEQEKWJs), and that section is kind of unexpected and powerful in its length and arc of descent.

Youtube comments aren't always a source of illumination, but it's interesting that someone actually singled out that particular passage with the comment: "from minute 1:04 to 1:48 is one of the most heavenly experiences that I have had, simply music of another world...! Thank you, maestro Bach!"

-J

I can get from F# down to G with a lot less fuss.

12 bars?

Pfft.

Amateur.

"Too many notes!" - Emperor Joseph II to JSB .

Not sure that was Bach, I always believed it was Mozart who wrote, "too many notes".

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=too+many+notes

Here is one of the examples.....
EMPEROR: Well, Herr Mozart! A good effort. Decidedly that. An excellent effort! You've shown us something quite new today.

[Mozart bows frantically: he is over-excited.]

MOZART: It is new, it is, isn't it, Sire?

EMPEROR: Yes, indeed.

MOZART: So then you like it? You really like it, Your Majesty?

EMPEROR: Of course I do. It's very good. Of course now and then - just now and then - it gets a touch elaborate.

MOZART: What do you mean, Sire?

EMPEROR: Well, I mean occasionally it seems to have, how shall one say? [he stops in difficulty; turning to Orsini-Rosenberg] How shall one say, Director?

ORSINI-ROSENBERG: Too many notes, Your Majesty?

EMPEROR: Exactly. Very well put. Too many notes.

MOZART: I don't understand. There are just as many notes, Majesty, as are required. Neither more nor less.

EMPEROR: My dear fellow, there are in fact only so many notes the ear can hear in the course of an evening. I think I'm right in saying that, aren't I, Court Composer?

SALIERI: Yes! yes! er, on the whole, yes, Majesty.

MOZART: But this is absurd!

EMPEROR: My dear, young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Cut a few and it will be perfect.

MOZART: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?

EMPEROR: Well. There it is.

You're not seriously quoting a movie as historical evidence, are you?

The man... The music... The madness... The murder... The motion picture...

I was seriously quoting Google, how did you miss that?

How can we ever doubt the veracity of Hollywood (or is it Prague, where Amadeus was filmed)? If it's in the movie, it happened. Let there be no doubt whatsoever.

If Joseph II didn't say that, why did Wolfie reduce the number of his notes in subsequent operas? Die Zauberflöte is almost bereft of them......

If only Joseph I (or 0) had said the same to JSB, the latter wouldn't have had to use his cell phone to compose.

I'm just quoting Piano World. How could you miss that?

Not sure that was Bach, I always believed it was Mozart who wrote, "too many notes".

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=too+many+notes

Here is a different example.

I have chosen this one to assuage the less well intellectually capable that may visit this web-site, of which I have recently discovered there is at least one...

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/28/arts/music-too-many-notes-and-too-few-ears.html

The chromatic harmonies in the passage would have been extremely novel in Bach's time, and thus it isn't just filler, like it seems to be today.