Bach/Busoni: Nun komm der Heiden Heiland Video

As I was making my "Canon at the Octave" video from The Art of Fugue on November 5, I received a call from my stepmother informing me my father was rushed to the hospital in critical condition from pancreatitis. He died early in the morning of November 6. All I did for two days was cry at the piano and play this beautiful chorale prelude. This is definitely music of the spheres, or ethereal music of the heavens.

Being a mathematician, statistician, and computer programmer, my father loved it when I talked about my Bach tempo theory. He was not a practicing musician, although he did play tuba, euphonium, and piano in school and was even offered a music scholarship when he entered college. (His side of the family was filled with many musicians. In fact, he told me my great aunt used to ride to peoples' houses on horseback and give piano lessons.) He ended up majoring in physics (Washington State) before earning a masters in mathematics (San Jose State University) as well as a masters in statistics (Stanford University, where I was born).

It was my father who sparked my interest in the piano and I vividly remember him playing Zez Confrey's "Dizzy Fingers" and "My Pet" on our old upright, which I became obsessed with. I used to dance around as a five-year-old to Dizzy Fingers, began piano at seven, and have had ragtime and novelty music "in my blood" ever since I was a child. Perhaps this explains my great interest and success playing Joplin's rags.

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Now for some tempo science. I have analyzed the complete organ music of Bach, and my theory tells me Bach wanted "Nun komm" to last four minutes the same way he intended Contrapunctus 1 to last three minutes and many preludes and fugues to last two minutes. Bach often worked with absolute time constraints, and about 40% of the time these time constraints seem to be whole-number durations like two, three, or four minutes. For more details, please see my website.

To put it simply, the proper tempo for "Nun komm" is 72 per eighth, which if followed strictly with some slight ritards, and especially a larger ritard in the final three bars, the resulting duration comes to four minutes almost precisely (My duration here is 4:03). It is also worth noting that there are four statements of the melody (marked "canto" in Busoni's edition). Four statements of the melody, duration of four minutes. Fascinating!

I also play this on the organ at exactly the same tempo as I do on my Steinway and am convinced the popular notion of having to alter the tempo depending on the instrument or acoustics is flawed reasoning. This is because four minutes is the same amount of time on an organ in a big church as it is on a Steinway in a living room. Four minutes is four minutes.

My idea of how this piece ought to be played is much different than most. As you can tell, I do not like big romantic excesses because I think this kind of pomp takes away from the "sacred" element of this music. This piece has a unique serenity that is easily ruined with grandiose excesses. In other words, I think of it more as Bach than Busoni rather than the other way around.

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mattfwilson: Very nicely played. I'm sorry for your loss.

TekinOzbekMusic: Once again, my condolences for you and your family. I'm sorry for your loss. Very nice piece & performance, as usual!

alvarojimzu: BRAVO!!!!!!!

alvarojimzu: By teh way i´m sorry for your lose :,(

gijsjaradijsja: Condolences Cory!

germaxco: I am sorry for you !!!your music is magnificent !!

Tchaca77: Wonderful interpretation... make me cry.

musicologopt: My deepest simpathy for your loss. Hope music continues to shine your life.

gbarnett70: So sorry Cory. Your performance here has brought mist to my eyes too. Your notes on your Father are a wonderful tribute.

YoanGanev: Dear Cory, we are so sorry about you loss! Your playing and dedication is so touching...

Alessandro32m: touch sublime and celestial sound .. played with confidence and baroque ..

CYisThelonius: I can see the sadness in your face here. You definitely have my condolences. I love your YT channel and piano playing. I discovered this piece and love it, and see why you would play at this time. Take care of yourself.

pianopera: I love the tempo you chose but the strict interpretation of this Romantic arrangement without much rubato is not entirely to my taste. I do adore the sound of your lovely Steinway, and I sympathize with your loss.

BachScholar: Thanks for the comment. I'm not a big fan of rubato in Bach, even in Busoni transcriptions, but I do like ritardandos in strategic points and especially here in the last three measures. I don't consider literal transcriptions like this as "romantic", but rather baroque played on a piano.

pianopera: I would rather call this "Neo-Baroque" as it is transcibed by a pianist/composer who had a typical 19th century view on Bach. After all, you are playing HIS PIANO-transcription, and not the original...there are a lot of indiciations like "espressivo assai", "rallentando", "dramatico", "ritenutamente" in Busoni's version that I didn't really hear. I'm not saying that you can't play it the way you do (it resembles Lipatti's rather strict version) but I like Horowitz's free approach more...

BachScholar: I understand what you mean, but I look at it differently. This is a very literal transcription from the organ version and all Busoni adds is his own markings like "ritenutamente" etc. which I don't really like. So in this respect it is not really his transcription at all, but more just a "generic" transcription like if one just sat down and played the organ version on piano. The main thing I want to show though, is Bach's plan of four minutes duration.

BachScholar: I was already aware of the Horowitz version before, but I just listened to the Lipatti. Thanks for pointing it out. Yes, my approach is very similar to Lipatti's. In fact, his duration is almost exactly four minutes just as my theory says and as how I play it also. I don't like Horowitz's big tempo fluctuations, it is a whole minute too slow, and I think he brings the melody out too much in a forceful kind of way, which ruins the serenity.

pianopera: Again I have to disagree with you! Busoni especially gives this note: "The prelude, the interludes and the accompaniment-parts are to be kept well in the background and maintain throughout a quiet, reticent character as a contrast to the melodic part, which must be strongly accented." So it is Hor. who follows B's indications, also in freedom of tempo. If you deny the fact that this transcription was written by B. you also deny the particular sound and expression that should be part of it.

BachScholar: But I do all of that. I do play the background softly and bring out the melody more, but I believe Busoni's words "strongly accented" are too harsh for this kind of character. Busoni loved to exaggerate his mannerisms and words. Of course, H does follow B's indications better than I do, but I don't think this is necessarily a good thing. I believe it is more Bach than Busoni.

pianopera: It is Bach AND Busoni! But maybe it would be better for you to skip the "Busoni" part and just play Bach's original on piano, as for you there seems to be no difference between the organ and the piano version. And I think it's quite dangerous to so strictly stick to your 4 minutes theory...music and inspiration come first, we are no mathematicians! Contrary to your view, I think we HAVE to adjust the tempo to the occasion: sort of instrument, acoustics, mood etc.

BachScholar: I play many organ works also on piano and speak from experience that music need not have different tempos on either instrument. Playing it in four minutes does not mean it cannot be musical and inspired. Four minutes is just four minutes and has nothing to do with math. But you said in your first comment my tempo was excellent, so now you seem to be contradicting yourself by implying the tempo is not good any more. Are you just arguing for the sake of arguing?

pianopera: It's your experience, but that is personal and subjective. And like in truecrypt's discussion, you are twisting matters here. - I didn't say the tempo wasn't "good", it's the logic (your logic) behind it that worries me. You have a theory that a piece should be played in a fixed, an exact amount of time, and I consider this nonsensical in Bach's case. - I am not arguing, I am just trying to give my view and constructive criticism...but if you can't handle that, it will be the last time.

BachScholar: Unfortunately, my logic is based on hundreds of pages of unpublished analyses that nobody has ever seen. In the near future I plan to have it all up on my website to view for free. In the meantime, one just has to accept what I say as being based on solid research and testing. My hundreds of analyses make it very clear Bach often sought durations like two, three, or four minutes. Why should this "worry" you or anyone else? I am not twisting anything. I am just stating my research.

pianopera: With all respect, one cannot expect other musicians to blindly run away with your "unpublished" theories...It "worries" me because this is likely to develop into a dogmatic, stiff way of music making where everybody is "wrong" if a performance of a certain Bach piece doesn't have the desired duration of 2, 3 or 4 minutes...it's even worse than some fanatic "authenticists" who claim to know exactly how Bach should be played! The essence of Baroque is FREEDOM...also freedom in tempo.

Hosenfeld24601: Beautiful, as always. My prayers are with you and your family

Author: BachScholar; Uploaded: Nov 9, 2009; Duration: 4:35; Views: 956

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