WEEK 4: The Journey with J.S.Bach's Music! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the last week of the J.S.Bach Challenge! This is the place to post submissions of the fourth 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! ↓
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Prelude BWV 997 measures 49-56 (Mar 28)
Now that I have played through the entire prelude and have more-or-less decided on fingerings, my plan is to memorize it backwards. I'm starting here with the last eight measures.
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Eric Phillips what a great idea to memorize it backwards! Next step will be inverse retrograde!
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Steve Pederson Yes, I had heard that from many people as a good strategy. I'm not sure how well it's working for me, though. I just find these endless strings of sixteenth notes so difficult to memorize.
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Now my modest contribution of the first 15 bars of the beautiful Preludio BWV 998. the interpretation has not yet been worked on at all. But this is the beginning ! I wanted to share with you guys.
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Nora Torres-Nagel Great start! BTW, your left hand technique looks fantastic! Very smooth and controlled.
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matt gracias Matt
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Nora Torres-Nagel Brava, Nora! Like wine, Bach's pieces need time, and you have a great start here! Thank you for sharing!
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Nora Torres-Nagel What a great beginning, Nora! I've had this on my wish list forever. You are inspiring me to take it up. I am looking forward to seeing your progress.
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Nora Torres-Nagel Beautiful playing Nora on this piece, which is one of my favorites also. You are developing a strong foundation to the piece and I know it will continue to improve. These Bach pieces require a lot of time to master and you are on the right track. Thanks for posting it!
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Nora Torres-Nagel Yes Nora! I applaud you for getting started on this and sharing it with us. I started taking a look at this piece this past week and got overwhelmed. I put it back on the shelf for another time. I'm glad you're tackling it. I look forward to your progress!
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Nora Torres-Nagel great start, Very nice playing. Good choice for you. Enjoy it as much as you can. I know from experience you will never get tired of this beautiful prelude (and the fugue and allegro ftm)
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Nora Torres-Nagel beautiful technique and beautiful playing, it is flowing so welll!!! Looking forward to listen to more!!!!!
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Prelude BWV 997 measures 45-56
I'm continuing to try to memorize this piece from the end. Today, I added just four measures (45-48), but it took me about 20 takes to get one in which I did not have to stop completely during those four measures. I really find this incredibly difficult to memorize. It frustrates me and makes me not even like the music while I'm playing it. We'll see if I can keep this up.
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Eric Phillips "about 20 takes to get one in" + "difficult to memorize", I have these problems with every piece
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Eric Phillips That sounds great, Eric. And your mentioned difficulties are not at all apparent in the video. Oh, and I am with Wai on his comments.
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Eric Phillips I am very impressed by your dedication to learning these Bach pieces, which require lots of concentration on various levels. Beautiful playing!!
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Jack Stewart It aggravates me so much when I can't seem to memorize just four measures. It takes all the enjoyment out of playing for me. I much prefer when the memorizing simply happens, without having to work on it intentionally. That's what happened with some of the Bach I've learned this challenge, but not with this one.
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Barney Thank you, Barney.
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Eric Phillips really good, balanced sound very beautiful sound! your R hand is very good!
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Emma Thank you, Emma.
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I posted this to week 3 in error, so posting again here.
This version of the Prelude was done by Ponce for Segovia to bring out the music using the capabilities, beauty and poetry of the modern day guitar. I first heard it while watching (with my father) a Segovia Masterclass series on TV filmed in Santiago de Compostella, Spain in I think about 1965. Segovia played this for his students. IMO, it was a magical guitar moment.
I have played the bare bones version, but always wanted to learn this one. It was more difficult than expected and is still in process. Here it is!
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Barney Wow!! Such a moment! Thank you Barney, I didn't know this version, and you played so nice! I can't wait for the moment to get the score and start to study this piece... Once more, thank you!
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Barney Beautiful, Barney! There are some very interesting harmonies added in there by Ponce.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric! Yes, it's almost as if Ponce imagined what Bach would have done to orchestrate this piece if he had access to the modern guitar. Ponce was a master at composing for guitar and I like what he did with this piece for Segovia. Btw, Christopher Parkening ( who was a wonderful Bach interpreter) also played this Ponce version. This version is a little more challenging , but it is very interesting and satisfying to play.
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Barney That was beautiful, Barney. Your playing is very smooth and expressive. This version almost has a jazz feel to it, at least in parts.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
