Comments on: Switched-On Music – Bach’s Nightmare? http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/02/07/switched-on-music-bachs-nightmare/ Synthesizer and electronic music news, synth and music software reviews and more! Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:14:16 -0500 hourly 1 By: elwin http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/02/07/switched-on-music-bachs-nightmare/#comment-136139 elwin Mon, 04 May 2009 22:17:54 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/?p=11418#comment-136139 I've never heard of Bach "pulling it out of his butt in the organ loft" before. They must have glossed over that in music history! I've never heard of Bach "pulling it out of his butt in the organ loft" before.

They must have glossed over that in music history!

]]> By: kent http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/02/07/switched-on-music-bachs-nightmare/#comment-132893 kent Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:30:15 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/?p=11418#comment-132893 In Bach's time, there really was no concept of fixed instrumentation. To paraphrase Rumsfeld, you performed with the ensemble you had, not the one you might want to have. Parts were doled out by roughly matching the range of the part to the available instruments. Any decent musician could read any clef, and transpose in his head. Improvisational ability was prized and built into nearly every performance, though Bach pulling it out of his butt in the organ loft was a very different thing than e.g. Archie Shepp. So Bach would probably not see anything strange at all about hearing his music played on instruments other than the ones he had in mind when he wrote it. On the other hand, there's something kind of awful about a some of these pieces. I have a problem with the patches chosen on some of them; they're the cliche sounds I hear on cheap locally produced television commercials. Any sort of electronic 'tine' sound makes me want to kick someone. And I've never heard a synth horn that didn't make me ill. I think W. Carlos had it right -- find a nice sound without regard for mimesis. And wtf with the piece with the honky saxaphone? In Bach’s time, there really was no concept of fixed instrumentation. To paraphrase Rumsfeld, you performed with the ensemble you had, not the one you might want to have. Parts were doled out by roughly matching the range of the part to the available instruments. Any decent musician could read any clef, and transpose in his head. Improvisational ability was prized and built into nearly every performance, though Bach pulling it out of his butt in the organ loft was a very different thing than e.g. Archie Shepp.

So Bach would probably not see anything strange at all about hearing his music played on instruments other than the ones he had in mind when he wrote it.

On the other hand, there’s something kind of awful about a some of these pieces. I have a problem with the patches chosen on some of them; they’re the cliche sounds I hear on cheap locally produced television commercials. Any sort of electronic ‘tine’ sound makes me want to kick someone. And I’ve never heard a synth horn that didn’t make me ill. I think W. Carlos had it right — find a nice sound without regard for mimesis.

And wtf with the piece with the honky saxaphone?

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