WEEK 1: Discovering J.S.Bach! 🕴
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the J.S.Bach Challenge! This is the place to post submissions of the first week!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
If you want to describe your process (optional), feel free to use the following template.
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ Reply below with your submissions and questions! ↓
263 replies
-
Sarabande BWV 997 measures 1-16 (and repeat) Mar 11
Here is the entire A section of this Sarabande. Eventually, I would love to be able to do lots of cool ornamentation on my sectional repeats, but here I pretty much just play the entire section twice.
One thing I'm really happy about is the relative ease with which I can now damp bass notes when needed. This is a technical skill I have been working on for a while, and it's finally getting to a point where I can do it without thinking too hard about it. As always with technique, progress is very slow and gradual.
-
BWV 1002 Sarabande and Double
I did manage to get these is in a single video(!). I think these are a bit better, though they are not without their problems.
I do find them somewhat stilted and need to focus on interpretation and phrasing.
-
BWV 995 Gavottes I and II (separately)
These are also revivals though fro further back in time. They are close to being under my fingers, though, once again, lacking in nuance. I didn't play the repeat on Gavotte II as I noticed it was getting pretty dark.
-
This week I concentrated on performance run -throughs of the first two movements from BWV1007, the Prelude and Allemande. I'm adopting a performance practice approach mentioned by Sanel Redžić in his recent masterclass that involved getting about 20 - 30 run throughs on two or three movements over the course of a day. I'm doing two movements each week for this month in the hopes of being able to improve the whole suite at the end.
Playing in front of a camera has certainly helped widen my awareness of the relationship between each movement. I need to pay more attention to phrasing and evenness of pulse, and I think I could play the Prelude with a bit more energy - but the overall sense of comfort and consistency improved this week. In the second repeat of the B section of the Allemande, m. 21, I had a memory slip but quickly recovered. It alarmed me at first, but then I realized my muscle memory jumped right into the next measure - a very good thing! Next week - Courante and Sarabande.