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Your Sunday Afternoon Bach Organ Fix via YouTube


Chris A

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Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major, BWV 552 (St. Anne)

The St. Anne Prelude and Fugue is a notable piece in the Bach repertoire, and is one of the longest of the preludes and fugues, the other being the Toccata and Fugue in F, BWV 540, shown above.  This piece is also one of the most interesting from a compositional standpoint, as discussed in the link shown in the title above.  Virtually all professional pipe organ artists play this piece as a major staple in their repertoire, and it can be found in many albums. 

 

I wasn't aware of the connection of Doug Marshall (the organist in this performance) with the famous organist Virgil Fox: Mr. Marshall apparently was a student of Virgil Fox. It was Virgil Fox's interpretations that I was exposed to at a young age, and who also was a good friend of my mother's organ professor at TCU.  (This may be a factor in my selection of Mr. Marshall's prelude and fugue performances more often than not in this thread.) 

 

Chris

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Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 547 ("9/8")

 

 

The kid was 18 when he played this three years ago...

 

Chris

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Prelude and Fugue in G minor, BWV 535

 

This guy has a really nice home setup: it sounds pretty much like the real thing--with really nice reverberation times, etc.  He has many Bach performances online that I'd also recommend for their interpretation and clarity of performance.  He's also apparently a professional photographer by trade, and uses a couple of his cameras to record these organ performances.

 

Chris

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Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, "The Wedge" (BWV 548)

 

From the notes to this video:

 

Quote

Dear Friends,

 

The "Wedge" Prelude and Fugue is a special old friend. It is the Bach piece I played when I won the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP) at the AGO [American Guild of Organists] convention in Dallas in 1972, while I was a student of Virgil Fox. I humbly offer this performance as Virgil taught it to me and as I (somewhat controversially) played it for the AGO then. I hope you enjoy it!

 

Doug Marshall

http://www.MarshallAndOgletree.com

 

...and from the linked Wikipedia article:

 

Quote

Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 548 is a piece of organ music written by Johann Sebastian Bach sometime between 1727 and 1736, during his time in Leipzig. The work is sometimes called "The Wedge" due to the chromatic outward motion of the fugue theme. Unlike most other organ preludes and fugues of Bach, the autograph fair copy of the score survives, though the handwriting changes twenty two measures into the fugue to the hand of Johann Peter Kellner, a likely pupil and acquaintance of Bach who played an important role in the copying of his manuscripts. Because of the work's immense scope, it has been referred to as "a two-part symphony for the organ."

Prelude

The prelude's massive structure is considered to be one of the most intricate in the genre. It bears a concerto-ritornello style similar to other mature organ works, such as the BWV 544 and BWV 546 preludes, with the homophonic opening theme reoccurring between various polyphonic, episodic sequences.

Fugue

The subtitle of the work, commonly referred to as "The Wedge", refers to the first half of the fugue subject, which opens up as a sort of widening, chromatic wedge around the tonic point. The tradition of descending chromatic fourths in Bach's e minor fugue subjects include the BWV 914 harpsichord Toccata, the BWV 855 Prelude and Fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1, as well as the "Un poco Allegro" movement from the BWV 528 Organ Sonata. The fugue, clocking at 231 measures, is among Bach's longest and most elaborate organ fugues. The movement is unique in that it is in a three-part structure, with the third da capo section being a note-for-note reprise of the first. The second section suddenly thrusts the piece into an over-one-hundred measure episode of rapid, toccata-like passages of great virtuosity, with the cascading passagework occasionally giving way to the subject.

 

Chris

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Fugue in D major BWV 532 (without shoes)

 

 

This was one of Virgil Fox's favorite Bach compositions, and this organist does it with similar flair--without using shoes, which is a fairly uncommon among first-rate organists (which this performer seems to be).  Too bad he didn't also perform the Prelude, as it is also just as wonderful to listen to (IMHO).  The orchestrations are fairly intricate here and interesting to watch the inter-manual work. 

 

Another favorite in the repertoire.  Enjoy!

 

Chris

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Prelude in D Major, BWV 532

I just found this Vigil Fox recording of the Prelude in D Major, BWV 532 on YouTube.  While there is no video of this performance, at least the sound quality isn't terrible (as it is for most of the other concert videos of Mr. Fox on YouTube, which is why I don't post those performances). 

 

 

This will give you some idea of the the difference in interpretation and the sheer energy of the performance that this notable organist brought to the table, which energized a popular following in the 1970s and early 1980s.  Unfortunately, the recording quality of that time for large pipe organ performances was quite poor, so the listener has to "read between the lines" to imagine what it was in live performance.  Mr. Fox, I believe, had no equals in bringing this music of Bach to the masses. 

 

Chris

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Prelude in G Major, BWV 568 (and DIY video)

 

I particularly like the somewhat hurried manner by which the organist hustles to the console after turning on the camera...then the more leisurely return to shut it off after the end of the performance. :wink:  (I would guess that video editing is not his forte...)

 

Enjoy!

 

Chris

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Prelude and fugue in C major, BWV 545

 

Remember to turn it up to 83 dB at the listening position in order to hear all the organ voices clearly and make the music come alive...

 

Here is a discussion of this particular prelude and fugue (BWV 545) by the same performer:

 

 

Chris

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Chris this is what I built those S-MWM's for. You are in for a real treat this spring and bring your best recordings and sit next to the 32' pipes with me. I love to see the look on peoples faces when they hear them. Had a guy over this week whose children had bought he and his wife a trip to England. Every afternoon some of the big old churches would have a short organ recital and he said it was like being there live again.

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'Gigue' Fugue  in G Major, BWV 577

 

 

This recording gets a bit strident towards the end, probably due to the "mutation stops" (otherwise referred to as fractional stops) way up on top of the principal stops used on the manual.  These stops are very difficult to record without that stridency, and depend on low phase distortion in the microphone and digital recorder front end.  (It probably doesn't help that YouTube converts lossless recordings to lossy AAC, but that's the deal...).

 

The "gigue" or "jig" fugue by Bach...Enjoy!

 

Chris

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Toccata and Fugue in d minor, BWV 565

 

No doubt the most recognizable Bach organ work of all.  Note that there are some that have tried to question the authorship of this work but it's abundantly clear that this is indeed J.S. Bach: no one else composes with this type of sound.

 

Watch the inter-manual work during the fugue starting at minute 3. Be sure to turn it up so that the soft passages are audible and the fff passages have the full authority that was intended.  This is a particularly clear recording of this famous piece and along with the video images, makes it clear all the voices that are written into this amazing piece of music.

 

Chris

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