Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in B Flat Major WTC I and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In my edition of the “Prelude and Fugue in C Major; harmonic solutions with patterns of mental bass progressions”, I introduced my harmonic solutions for the pieces in the Well-Tempered Clavier, and explained something about my methods. I will not repeat this introduction here, as study of the first Prelude and Fugue will build an excellent foundation, which I believe is necessary in order to continue with others in the collection. Instead, this preface lists the main consequences that are necessarily drawn from my understanding of Bach’s harmonic principles, principles which are clearly illustrated graphically within each of my scores for the Well Tempered Clavier. — In my opinion, to simply play notes and intervals without any awareness of each note’s harmonic identity does not reflect Bach’s intent or practice in the WTC. This harmonic identity means that every note in a composition or a performance (which is usually the same thing in Bach) is not just thought of by its melodic function, but is also considered in how it relates to a mental bass. When a note is considered with its mental bass, it can function as a fundamental note, a harmonic third, a harmonic fifth, a harmonic seventh, a harmonic ninth or as a non-chord note. This mental bass is in turn always considered in how it relates to the tonic or a tonic substitute, and will be used in some pattern that moves naturally around this tonic or tonic substitute. — Therefore, any conception that a piece from the WTC consists of several “independent” voices does not reflect Bach’s compositional process. In fact, the voices of the polyphony are more or less dependent upon these carefully organized mental bass patterns (I have found some passages in Bach’s organ music which would have been composed without any underlying mental bass, but am yet to discover any such places in the Well Tempered Clavier). In many cases, one or more voices are strongly dependent upon the current mental bass progression, with Bach deducing the shape of these voices from the dynamic properties of given harmonic patterns. This can be understood by playing with an awareness of the harmonic identity, instead of merely reproducing the pitches and intervals on the score, which will only grant glimpses of the music’s logic and sense. — Memorizing every voice of any of the preludes or fugues without this awareness of the underlying logical harmonic progressions created by mental basses is a purely theoretical exercise, and bears no relation to Bach’s practice. — It is important to remember that in Bach’s music, there is only one tonic! For this reason, the tonic substitutes in a piece are always drawn from the tonic’s scale (excluding the leading tone), and a mental bass that is a tonic substitute is mostly the goal of a harmonic progression within the piece. This may seem a small point, but I believe it is important if we are to correctly understand Bach’s music as being truly tonal, and I insist on this point in the quick reference card at the entry for tonic substitute. — Once one has studied any prelude and fugue from the WTC with an awareness of each note’s harmonic identity, then the score is no longer necessary for performance. The piece will become more and more obvious (even the most complex works of the WTC will become more accessible over time), and can then be played by heart as well as if one had composed them, rather than as some passive contemplation of a mysterious masterpiece, opaque to nearly all minds.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in B Flat Major WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2023-06-24 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we read Bach, if we play the notes and Intervals without a clear awareness of their harmonic identity, then we are not truly playing his music. For any student of Bach, the natural question must surely be to ask what the harmonic identity is. In these scores, I reveal my own interpretation, providing my "harmonic solutions" to Bach's practice, based upon methodical research.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in E Flat Major WTC I and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by CHRISTOPHE BRASS and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2024-01-30 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we read Bach, if we play the notes and Intervals without a clear awareness of their harmonic identity, then we are not truly playing his music. For any student of Bach, the natural question must surely be to ask what the harmonic identity is. In these scores, I reveal my own interpretation, providing my "harmonic solutions" to Bach's practice, based upon methodical research.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in B Flat Minor WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2024-03-23 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we read Bach, if we play the notes and Intervals without a clear awareness of their harmonic identity, then we are not truly playing his music. For any student of Bach, the natural question must surely be to ask what the harmonic identity is. In these scores, I reveal my own interpretation, providing my "harmonic solutions" to Bach's practice, based upon methodical research.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Major WTC I and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the Well-Tempered Clavier's title page, J.S. Bach wrote that these works were "…for the profit and use of the musical youth eager to learn as well as for the pastime of those already skilled in this study." How we interpret the meaning of "learning" and "pastime" is up to each of us. For me, the most striking characteristic of this work is its perfect relationship between counterpoint and harmony. I have always desired to understand the mechanisms behind this relationship, to find the source of Bach’s harmonic awareness, and to then play these compositions with this understanding. The current prevailing paradigm is that the scores of the WTC are essentially composed of pitches and intervals directly projected from Bach’s mind into different voices. Under this paradigm, the harmony is widely considered, at least in many of Bach's fugues, to be the inexplicable result of the constant encounters between the different voices, thus disregarding any possibility to find structured harmonic progressions in the preludes and fugues. Therefore, any harmonic study is reduced to a theoretical exercise, with no link to the mental process of the composition’s creation or performance. Despite the alleged insignificance, the urge to understand Bach’s harmonic thinking is hardly a new one. In 1773, a student of Kirnberger's, J.A.P. Schulz wrote a treatise at his teacher's request. This treatise, "Die wahren Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmony", (The true principles for the practice of harmony) includes harmonic interpretations of Bach’s Fugues in B Minor, bk. I, and in A Minor, bk. II. As part of this harmonic study, the treatise adds a realized thorough bass and two figured fundamental basses on independent staffs to each fugue. By the time I read this treatise, I had already begun to discover that logical progressions of implied fundamental basses—which I believed were representations of a mental process—lay at the core of many of Bach’s compositions. Schulz’s work was an important step, as his thorough bass showed that these fugues could be understood beyond the given contrapuntal lines, but he did not describe the progressional logic to be found across entire compositions. I accomplished the next step by completely dissociating the bass from a staff, since writing these basses on a staff contradicts their abstract nature. This also avoids any confusion with the natural resonance's bass. By seeking to break away from conventional understandings of Bach's compositional process, I was able to come at the problem from a new direction. Through my search for how Bach’s melodic lines may have resulted from a far deeper mental process, I was led toward the mental-bass concept, and these mental basses allowed me to formulate harmonic solutions for all 96 pieces of the WTC. This edition of the Prelude and Fugue in C Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier, bk. I, presents a full score harmonic interpretation illustrated by a new graphical concept (explained with a quick reference card) within the score itself, permitting study and understanding of the harmony’s logic through the music itself, and without "blather".

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in E Flat Major WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the Well-Tempered Clavier's title page, J.S. Bach wrote that these works were "…for the profit and use of the musical youth eager to learn as well as for the pastime of those already skilled in this study." How we interpret the meaning of "learning" and "pastime" is up to each of us. For me, the most striking characteristic of this work is its perfect relationship between counterpoint and harmony. I have always desired to understand the mechanisms behind this relationship, to find the source of Bach’s harmonic awareness, and to then play these compositions with this understanding. The current prevailing paradigm is that the scores of the WTC are essentially composed of pitches and intervals directly projected from Bach’s mind into different voices. Under this paradigm, the harmony is widely considered, at least in many of Bach's fugues, to be the inexplicable result of the constant encounters between the different voices, thus disregarding any possibility to find structured harmonic progressions in the preludes and fugues. Therefore, any harmonic study is reduced to a theoretical exercise, with no link to the mental process of the composition’s creation or performance. Despite the alleged insignificance, the urge to understand Bach’s harmonic thinking is hardly a new one. In 1773, a student of Kirnberger's, J.A.P. Schulz wrote a treatise at his teacher's request. This treatise, "Die wahren Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmony", (The true principles for the practice of harmony) includes harmonic interpretations of Bach’s Fugues in B Minor, bk. I, and in A Minor, bk. II. As part of this harmonic study, the treatise adds a realized thorough bass and two figured fundamental basses on independent staffs to each fugue. By the time I read this treatise, I had already begun to discover that logical progressions of implied fundamental basses—which I believed were representations of a mental process—lay at the core of many of Bach’s compositions. Schulz’s work was an important step, as his thorough bass showed that these fugues could be understood beyond the given contrapuntal lines, but he did not describe the progressional logic to be found across entire compositions. I accomplished the next step by completely dissociating the bass from a staff, since writing these basses on a staff contradicts their abstract nature. This also avoids any confusion with the natural resonance's bass. By seeking to break away from conventional understandings of Bach's compositional process, I was able to come at the problem from a new direction. Through my search for how Bach’s melodic lines may have resulted from a far deeper mental process, I was led toward the mental-bass concept, and these mental basses allowed me to formulate harmonic solutions for all 96 pieces of the WTC. This edition of the Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier, bk. II, presents a full score harmonic interpretation illustrated by a new graphical concept (explained with a quick reference card) within the score itself, permitting study and understanding of the harmony’s logic through the music itself, and without "blather".

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude in E Flat Minor and Fugue in D Sharp Minor WTC I and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In my edition of the “Prelude and Fugue in C Major; harmonic solutions with patterns of mental bass progressions”, I introduced my harmonic solutions for the pieces in the Well-Tempered Clavier, and explained something about my methods. I will not repeat this introduction here, as study of the first Prelude and Fugue will build an excellent foundation, which I believe is necessary in order to continue with others in the collection. Instead, this preface lists the main consequences that are necessarily drawn from my understanding of Bach’s harmonic principles, principles which are clearly illustrated graphically within each of my scores for the Well Tempered Clavier. — In my opinion, to simply play notes and intervals without any awareness of each note’s harmonic identity does not reflect Bach’s intent or practice in the WTC. This harmonic identity means that every note in a composition or a performance (which is usually the same thing in Bach) is not just thought of by its melodic function, but is also considered in how it relates to a mental bass. When a note is considered with its mental bass, it can function as a fundamental note, a harmonic third, a harmonic fifth, a harmonic seventh, a harmonic ninth or as a non-chord note. This mental bass is in turn always considered in how it relates to the tonic or a tonic substitute, and will be used in some pattern that moves naturally around this tonic or tonic substitute. — Therefore, any conception that a piece from the WTC consists of several “independent” voices does not reflect Bach’s compositional process. In fact, the voices of the polyphony are more or less dependent upon these carefully organized mental bass patterns (I have found some passages in Bach’s organ music which would have been composed without any underlying mental bass, but am yet to discover any such places in the Well Tempered Clavier). In many cases, one or more voices are strongly dependent upon the current mental bass progression, with Bach deducing the shape of these voices from the dynamic properties of given harmonic patterns. This can be understood by playing with an awareness of the harmonic identity, instead of merely reproducing the pitches and intervals on the score, which will only grant glimpses of the music’s logic and sense. — Memorizing every voice of any of the preludes or fugues without this awareness of the underlying logical harmonic progressions created by mental basses is a purely theoretical exercise, and bears no relation to Bach’s practice. — It is important to remember that in Bach’s music, there is only one tonic! For this reason, the tonic substitutes in a piece are always drawn from the tonic’s scale (excluding the leading tone), and a mental bass that is a tonic substitute is mostly the goal of a harmonic progression within the piece. This may seem a small point, but I believe it is important if we are to correctly understand Bach’s music as being truly tonal, and I insist on this point in the quick reference card at the entry for tonic substitute. — Once one has studied any prelude and fugue from the WTC with an awareness of each note’s harmonic identity, then the score is no longer necessary for performance. The piece will become more and more obvious (even the most complex works of the WTC will become more accessible over time), and can then be played by heart as well as if one had composed them, rather than as some passive contemplation of a mysterious masterpiece, opaque to nearly all minds.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in G Minor WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we read Bach, if we play the notes and Intervals without a clear awareness of their harmonic identity, then we are not truly playing his music. For any student of Bach, the natural question must surely be to ask what the harmonic identity is. In these scores, I reveal my own interpretation, providing my "harmonic solutions" to Bach's practice, based upon methodical research.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in G Major WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the Well-Tempered Clavier's title page, J.S. Bach wrote that these works were "…for the profit and use of the musical youth eager to learn as well as for the pastime of those already skilled in this study." How we interpret the meaning of "learning" and "pastime" is up to each of us. For me, the most striking characteristic of this work is its perfect relationship between counterpoint and harmony. I have always desired to understand the mechanisms behind this relationship, to find the source of Bach’s harmonic awareness, and to then play these compositions with this understanding. The current prevailing paradigm is that the scores of the WTC are essentially composed of pitches and intervals directly projected from Bach’s mind into different voices. Under this paradigm, the harmony is widely considered, at least in many of Bach's fugues, to be the inexplicable result of the constant encounters between the different voices, thus disregarding any possibility to find structured harmonic progressions in the preludes and fugues. Therefore, any harmonic study is reduced to a theoretical exercise, with no link to the mental process of the composition’s creation or performance. Despite the alleged insignificance, the urge to understand Bach’s harmonic thinking is hardly a new one. In 1773, a student of Kirnberger's, J.A.P. Schulz wrote a treatise at his teacher's request. This treatise, "Die wahren Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmony", (The true principles for the practice of harmony) includes harmonic interpretations of Bach’s Fugues in B Minor, bk. I, and in A Minor, bk. II. As part of this harmonic study, the treatise adds a realized thorough bass and two figured fundamental basses on independent staffs to each fugue. By the time I read this treatise, I had already begun to discover that logical progressions of implied fundamental basses—which I believed were representations of a mental process—lay at the core of many of Bach’s compositions. Schulz’s work was an important step, as his thorough bass showed that these fugues could be understood beyond the given contrapuntal lines, but he did not describe the progressional logic to be found across entire compositions. I accomplished the next step by completely dissociating the bass from a staff, since writing these basses on a staff contradicts their abstract nature. This also avoids any confusion with the natural resonance's bass. By seeking to break away from conventional understandings of Bach's compositional process, I was able to come at the problem from a new direction. Through my search for how Bach’s melodic lines may have resulted from a far deeper mental process, I was led toward the mental-bass concept, and these mental basses allowed me to formulate harmonic solutions for all 96 pieces of the WTC. This edition of the Prelude and Fugue in G Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier, bk. II, presents a full score harmonic interpretation illustrated by a new graphical concept (explained with a quick reference card) within the score itself, permitting study and understanding of the harmony’s logic through the music itself, and without "blather".

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in C sharp Major WTC I and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2023-09-06 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we read Bach, if we play the notes and Intervals without a clear awareness of their harmonic identity, then we are not truly playing his music. For any student of Bach, the natural question must surely be to ask what the harmonic identity is. In these scores, I reveal my own interpretation, providing my "harmonic solutions" to Bach's practice, based upon methodical research.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Minor WTC I and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2023-07-31 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we read Bach, if we play the notes and Intervals without a clear awareness of their harmonic identity, then we are not truly playing his music. For any student of Bach, the natural question must surely be to ask what the harmonic identity is. In these scores, I reveal my own interpretation, providing my "harmonic solutions" to Bach's practice, based upon methodical research.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Minor WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by harmonic solutions. This book was released on 2021-09-11 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we read Bach, if we play the notes and Intervals without a clear awareness of their harmonic identity, then we are not truly playing his music. For any student of Bach, the natural question must surely be to ask what the harmonic identity is. In these scores, I reveal my own interpretation, providing my "harmonic solutions" to Bach's practice, based upon methodical research.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Sharp Minor WTC I and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2023-10-08 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we read Bach, if we play the notes and Intervals without a clear awareness of their harmonic identity, then we are not truly playing his music. For any student of Bach, the natural question must surely be to ask what the harmonic identity is. In these scores, I reveal my own interpretation, providing my "harmonic solutions" to Bach's practice, based upon methodical research.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in F Major WTC I and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In my edition of the “Prelude and Fugue in C Major; harmonic solutions with patterns of mental bass progressions”, I introduced my harmonic solutions for the pieces in the Well-Tempered Clavier, and explained something about my methods. I will not repeat this introduction here, as study of the first Prelude and Fugue will build an excellent foundation, which I believe is necessary in order to continue with others in the collection. Instead, this preface lists the main consequences that are necessarily drawn from my understanding of Bach’s harmonic principles, principles which are clearly illustrated graphically within each of my scores for the Well Tempered Clavier. — In my opinion, to simply play notes and intervals without any awareness of each note’s harmonic identity does not reflect Bach’s intent or practice in the WTC. This harmonic identity means that every note in a composition or a performance (which is usually the same thing in Bach) is not just thought of by its melodic function, but is also considered in how it relates to a mental bass. When a note is considered with its mental bass, it can function as a fundamental note, a harmonic third, a harmonic fifth, a harmonic seventh, a harmonic ninth or as a non-chord note. This mental bass is in turn always considered in how it relates to the tonic or a tonic substitute, and will be used in some pattern that moves naturally around this tonic or tonic substitute. — Therefore, any conception that a piece from the WTC consists of several “independent” voices does not reflect Bach’s compositional process. In fact, the voices of the polyphony are more or less dependent upon these carefully organized mental bass patterns (I have found some passages in Bach’s organ music which would have been composed without any underlying mental bass, but am yet to discover any such places in the Well Tempered Clavier). In many cases, one or more voices are strongly dependent upon the current mental bass progression, with Bach deducing the shape of these voices from the dynamic properties of given harmonic patterns. This can be understood by playing with an awareness of the harmonic identity, instead of merely reproducing the pitches and intervals on the score, which will only grant glimpses of the music’s logic and sense. — Memorizing every voice of any of the preludes or fugues without this awareness of the underlying logical harmonic progressions created by mental basses is a purely theoretical exercise, and bears no relation to Bach’s practice. — It is important to remember that in Bach’s music, there is only one tonic! For this reason, the tonic substitutes in a piece are always drawn from the tonic’s scale (excluding the leading tone), and a mental bass that is a tonic substitute is mostly the goal of a harmonic progression within the piece. This may seem a small point, but I believe it is important if we are to correctly understand Bach’s music as being truly tonal, and I insist on this point in the quick reference card at the entry for tonic substitute. — Once one has studied any prelude and fugue from the WTC with an awareness of each note’s harmonic identity, then the score is no longer necessary for performance. The piece will become more and more obvious (even the most complex works of the WTC will become more accessible over time), and can then be played by heart as well as if one had composed them, rather than as some passive contemplation of a mysterious masterpiece, opaque to nearly all minds.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Major WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2024-09-28 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the Well-Tempered Clavier's title page, J.S. Bach wrote that these works were "…for the profit and use of the musical youth eager to learn as well as for the pastime of those already skilled in this study." The most striking characteristic of this work is its perfect relationship between counterpoint and harmony and I have always desired to understand the mechanisms behind this relationship, to find the source of Bach's harmonic awareness, and to then play these compositions with this understanding. The current prevailing paradigm is that the scores of the WTC are essentially composed of pitches and intervals directly projected from Bach's mind into different voices. Under this paradigm, the harmony is widely considered, at least in many of Bach's fugues, to be the inexplicable result of the constant encounters between the different voices, thus disregarding any possibility to find structured harmonic progressions in the preludes and fugues. Therefore, any harmonic study is reduced to a theoretical exercise, with no link to the mental process of the composition's creation or performance. Despite the alleged insignificance, the urge to understand Bach's harmonic thinking is hardly a new one. In 1773, a student of Kirnberger's, J.A.P. Schulz wrote a treatise at his teacher's request. This treatise, "Die wahren Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmony", (The true principles for the practice of harmony) includes harmonic interpretations of Bach's Fugues in B Minor, bk. I, and in A Minor, bk. II. As part of this harmonic study, the treatise adds a realized thorough bass and two figured fundamental basses on independent staffs to each fugue. By the time I read this treatise, I had already begun to discover that logical progressions of implied fundamental basses—which I believed were representations of a mental process—lay at the core of many of Bach's compositions. Schulz's work was an important step, as his thorough bass showed that these fugues could be understood beyond the given contrapuntal lines, but he did not describe the progressional logic to be found across entire compositions. I accomplished the next step by completely dissociating the bass from a staff, since writing these basses on a staff contradicts their abstract nature. This also avoids any confusion with the natural resonance's bass. By seeking to break away from conventional understandings of Bach's compositional process, I was able to come at the problem from a new direction. Through my search for how Bach's melodic lines may have resulted from a far deeper mental process, I was led toward the mental-bass concept, and these mental basses allowed me to formulate harmonic solutions for all 96 pieces of the WTC. This edition of the Prelude and Fugue in C minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier, bk. II, presents a full score harmonic interpretation illustrated by a new graphical concept (explained with a quick reference card) within the score itself, permitting study and understanding of the harmony's logic through the music itself, and without "blather". Available ebook formats: epub, PDF

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in A Major WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions Author written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2023-08-06 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we read Bach, if we play the notes and Intervals without a clear awareness of their harmonic identity, then we are not truly playing his music. For any student of Bach, the natural question must surely be to ask what the harmonic identity is. In these scores, I reveal my own interpretation, providing my "harmonic solutions" to Bach's practice, based upon methodical research.

Download or read book J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in D Minor WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental Bass Progressions written by Christophe Brass and published by Christophe Brass. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the Well-Tempered Clavier's title page, J.S. Bach wrote that these works were "…for the profit and use of the musical youth eager to learn as well as for the pastime of those already skilled in this study." How we interpret the meaning of "learning" and "pastime" is up to each of us. For me, the most striking characteristic of this work is its perfect relationship between counterpoint and harmony. I have always desired to understand the mechanisms behind this relationship, to find the source of Bach’s harmonic awareness, and to then play these compositions with this understanding. The current prevailing paradigm is that the scores of the WTC are essentially composed of pitches and intervals directly projected from Bach’s mind into different voices. Under this paradigm, the harmony is widely considered, at least in many of Bach's fugues, to be the inexplicable result of the constant encounters between the different voices, thus disregarding any possibility to find structured harmonic progressions in the preludes and fugues. Therefore, any harmonic study is reduced to a theoretical exercise, with no link to the mental process of the composition’s creation or performance. Despite the alleged insignificance, the urge to understand Bach’s harmonic thinking is hardly a new one. In 1773, a student of Kirnberger's, J.A.P. Schulz wrote a treatise at his teacher's request. This treatise, "Die wahren Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmony", (The true principles for the practice of harmony) includes harmonic interpretations of Bach’s Fugues in B Minor, bk. I, and in A Minor, bk. II. As part of this harmonic study, the treatise adds a realized thorough bass and two figured fundamental basses on independent staffs to each fugue. By the time I read this treatise, I had already begun to discover that logical progressions of implied fundamental basses—which I believed were representations of a mental process—lay at the core of many of Bach’s compositions. Schulz’s work was an important step, as his thorough bass showed that these fugues could be understood beyond the given contrapuntal lines, but he did not describe the progressional logic to be found across entire compositions. I accomplished the next step by completely dissociating the bass from a staff, since writing these basses on a staff contradicts their abstract nature. This also avoids any confusion with the natural resonance's bass. By seeking to break away from conventional understandings of Bach's compositional process, I was able to come at the problem from a new direction. Through my search for how Bach’s melodic lines may have resulted from a far deeper mental process, I was led toward the mental-bass concept, and these mental basses allowed me to formulate harmonic solutions for all 96 pieces of the WTC. This edition of the Prelude and Fugue in D Minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier, bk. II, presents a full score harmonic interpretation illustrated by a new graphical concept (explained with a quick reference card) within the score itself, permitting study and understanding of the harmony’s logic through the music itself, and without "blather".