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  • Bach - "Little Fugue"

    Hi,

      I wanted to share my first attempt at a Bach piece which I have been trying to work on for a while now. This is based upon the Stokowski arrangement however I didn't have the score for this so I had to improvise in parts and therefore, the instrumentation has been more limited by the libraries I own rather than an attempt at being faithful to the original score (which I don't have). I finally got it to a stage where I think it is heading in the right direction but would welcome some feedback and critique on the arrangement, mix and anything else which you may find unsettling/disturbing from a listening perspective and then hopefully I can move it into a better place.

    http://soundcloud.com/mcelvogue/bach-little-fugue

    Regards,

          Tom


  • Hi Tom,

    I posted my comments on soundcloud.  Nicely done.


  •  Hi Tom,

    This is a great idea to do an orchestral arrangement of the Bach fugue with VSL.  You did a good job on this.  I had the impression that you could use some emphasis on staccato vs. legato on the be-uh-buh-buh- type figures (if that makes sense) which are very characteristic in this, so that you would have legato on two notes, and then two staccati.  Or perhaps an accented portato followed by legato then two staccati. But basically just putting in some more variations within the line of articulations on each part. 

    I have to tell you I've had the same idea of doing one of these transcriptions, and inspired by the same source - those awesome Stokowski arrangements.  I hesitated because I was afraid "purists" wouldn't like it.  I once had an organist ridicule any arrangement of Bach fugues to my face because they were "pure." .  But those arrangements are so fabulous!  Some of the most powerful, wondrous recordings I've ever heard.  Stokowski, and then Eugene Ormandy who was trying to outdo Stokowski (not an easy thing to do) and did a series of recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra that were simply HUGE orchestrations of Bach fugues that are very powerful.  I should post something from those recordings becuse they are just INSANE orchestrations.   But the Stokowski recordings of these are like high-water marks in recording/orchestration/performance of music that I've ever heard, especially including two of his transcriptions:  the Partita in D - slow movement - and the "Komm Suesser Tod" which is the most extreme espressivo playing I've ever heard recorded/conducted.  It was like  dragging out of every note of the music the last particle of expresion possible to extract.  

    Anyway, this was great to hear! 


  • Hi William,

         thanks for the feedback. What you are suggesting makes perfect sense and I was not completely happy as to the representation of some of the melodic lines here. I will be working on this again next week to try and get something closer.

    I too was blown away by the original Stokowski recordings/arrangements and for me they felt like new creations and not neccesarily something to compare against the "pure" organ versions. I think the purists in any form of music perform a hugely valuable function by maintaining such a high standard of expectation which in itself drives people to improve. Sometimes though this can be at the expense of creativity and innovation which is something that is also important not to lose (for me anyway). In particular with the VSL libraries, it is very easy to try things out to see how changes in instrumentation and arrangement etc effect the shape, colour and dynamics of the music and in so many cases it is immediately apparent why certain choices were made by the composer/arranger which I find fascinating.

    Whilst the purists and devotees can all offer an opinion on what they "think" something should sound like, they cannot say with any degree of certainty that theirs is the only opinion that counts. At the end of the day, theirs is only another opinion, albeit a very well-qualified opinion which I do respect but probably not to the extent that it would dissuade me taking a look at some of these works - they're just too good and there is also too much to learn from them. I would like to believe though that there is always room for expression within these pieces without fear of ridicule or dismissal and whilst I'm nowhere close to what I would really like to represent musically, I am happy that this is a start. I'll take a listen to the pieces you suggested also as I only concentrated on this piece first as I felt it might be acheivable within the libraries/skills I currently have (and I really just liked this fugue!).

    Thanks again for the feedback and comment. Much appreciated.

    Regards,

          Tom


  • Tom,

    I think this is very well done. I enjoyed every bit.

    Brian


  • Thanks Brian,

      still a long, long way to go but pleased you enjoyed it.

    Regards,

           Tom


  • PaulP Paul moved this topic from Orchestration & Composition on