Bach Little Prelude in F BWV 927

[marsippius]

I am happy to present a Bach from my earlier days.  This one is Little Prelude in F.
As the sheet music to this is difficult to find on the Net, I am using a hard copy
from a regular music book.  Apparently the designation BWV 927 is associated
with this piece by J.S. Bach.

The piano is an upright Cumberland from the days of 1931.  It is recently tuned, and
a new tuning is scheduled for the near future.

Recorded using a small laptop placed on top of piano.  External mic position is near the floor near the back center of the piano.  Software is open source Audacity.

I do not play this one strictly by the editor's markings.  And it did take some practice
to get this one ready for _you_ , as members of my listening audience.

Please enjoy, and comments welcome as always.

- Marsippius -

[iroveashe]

I think the C-A-C, D-Bb-D, etc. in the left hand at the beginning should stand out more (or more like bring down the volume of the right hand); I feel the tempo should be slower since it sounds irregular in some parts (bars 7-8), and the ending sounds weird to me: not sure why you play in bar 14 the arpeggio and then the bass E, the first note of the arpeggio should be played on the beat, not before. And after that the final bar is plain different from my score: the tempo and the notes, but I'm not sure if all of that is what you meant by "not strictly by the editor's markings".

[marsippius]

Thanks for listening.  I will try to explain best I can.

The bottom note E can be played as such, optionally, said the teacher back then.
The final few measures are sometimes indicated espressivo.   In the one I am looking
at, I see a tenuoto for the arpeggio, followed by an eighth rest, with a formata.  Then the final measure is the cadence.  It begs to stand out, then. 

And so, imagine the pole vaulter at the sports stadium.  He runs up to the exact spot,
he puts one end of the pole on the ground, (in measure 13, the Bb quarter note
in the LH) then rides over the top (the arpeggio of measure 14), to land on the
other side (the cadence and final chord).  Thus, measures 8 through 15.  Really, it is just the transfer of energy, and it is simply spread out.

The analogy of the pole vaulter is not supposed to explain everything, but I use it
to explain the basic idea of what is really going on here -- transfer of energy.

Musically, the fundamentals are pulling up undertones from the bass
section, beginning with measure 8, but only if you call them up by digging
them out - with a slight change of tempo.

I hope this helps.