This sounds awesome! Can you explain a little bit how your doing this(notation software, editing, fingering, typying it out piece by piece)?
How long will it take do you think? I'D love to use this edition when I start on the Wtc
Perhaps someone can answer a question for me about Fugue 5 from Book 1. There's a rhythmic figure that repeatedly crops up (e.g. the third beat of the upper stave in bar 3) - in the Urtext I'm working from it's dotted quaver followed by 3 demi-semi-quavers (which doesn't even add up to a beat). In the Busoni edition the dotted quaver is tied to another demi-semi-quaver, thus totalling a beat. In a fairly terrible edition by Czerny that I've got, the three demi-semi-quavers are done as a triplet.
This sounds awesome! Can you explain a little bit how your doing this(notation software, editing, fingering, typying it out piece by piece)?How long will it take do you think? I'D love to use this edition when I start on the Wtc
Anyone who's positvely working on anything about Bach is a hero in my book.All hail Bach.
Hey I did did two p&f's from WTC but you don't think of me as a hero! Well really only 1, I kinda half assed a 3 voicer.
Thats working on playing a bach piece.Its entirely different to work on bach in a way that faciliates the learning of others through publishing your thoughts on the works.Not that i'm claiming any heroism here, as I said I haven't done anything yet besides think about what would be of value in within the project.
'you and J Menz are the biggest jerks in mu book'.
That probably would've been a fair comment.
Hey!!!!
..I guess I proved my point at least so far as my own behaviour.
So, to elaborate - I also want to do open score versions of some of the preludes where that would be appropriate/relevant.On fingering (and other marks), SERIOUSLY big job in my head- I would actually like to have a digital WTC edition that contains something like this for every work.Closed Score UrtextOpen Score UrtextFingering/dynamics 1Fingering/dynamics 2Fingering/dynamics 3AnalysisMotifs Only, for student to fill in their own counterpointRecording - CompleteRecording - Combinations of voices, a. V1 alone, b. V2 alone, c. V3 alone, d. V1 and V2, e. V1 and V3.. etc. etc.Performance Notes 1Performance Notes 2...Obviously such a thing will take quite possibly decades to complete - but thats what I'd like to do. Unedited open scores is just step one. For anyone who want's an open score now you can just buy one printed. There just isn't one in the public domain (and come on, its not that hard to copy out a score, who knows how many people have written it out by hand as part of their studies - this part at least should be easily accessible for free), and also not one that can be accessed as an engraving file rather than an untouchable pdf....On recordings, I'm "in the market" for a quality rendition of the full 48 in midi. This is so I can digitally block out individual voices, and provide recordings at multiple tempos, and at a perfect concert pitch without having to struggle to play every combination in such a way that it would all fit together with some level of consistency and manipulatability (not a word I know). I plan to render it through a solid sampled piano program like ivory or some such.So far I havent found something I'm happy with but I'm yet to look at these properlyhttps://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?collection=bachwtk&preview=1
I really think this is an AWESOME idea, though it requires a lot of time and possibly a full-fledged team of pianists/musicians. Why don't you guys do something smaller scale first that perhaps will serve a lower, more common denominator: the inventions and the sinfonias! Besides my selfish desire of a good edition with everything you said you would inlude, I think this task would be good because: 1. You can experiment more since it is a less serious work (right ) 2. It would serve such a wide range of pianists and 3. you'll have more immediate results to share for feedback. Then, you should start this Opus Maximus that is the Well-Tempered Clavier.But do what you want. Maybe the inventions aren't worth it. What do you think?
Though I don't really know how to use Lilypond, is there any specific tasks I can help with? I'd be glad to. It can include writing scores with Lilypond and learning it and what not. This sort of project is something that interestes me tremendously because it seems incredibly useful. It's something Bernhard would want for Christmas but that he could have for free because it is open AND that he can edit and improve! I have a lot of time in my hands during August too so . ..
The Urtext conforms to the manuscript (at page 3). The same figure is also in the bass on beat 1 of that bar and recurs elsewhere, though there are other instances where there are only 2 demisemiquavers (which do add up to a beat). Whether one follows Busoni or Czerny is a matter of personal preference really, which is no help to you at all. FWIW, I prefer the Czerny interpretation.Whichever you choose to use, I would recommend a footnote by way of explanation. But then I like footnotes.
On recordings, I'm "in the market" for a quality rendition of the full 48 in midi. This is so I can digitally block out individual voices, and provide recordings at multiple tempos, and at a perfect concert pitch without having to struggle to play every combination in such a way that it would all fit together with some level of consistency and manipulatability (not a word I know). I plan to render it through a solid sampled piano program like ivory or some such.
I don't know a huge amount about MIDI, but it's easy to get Lilypond to produce a MIDI file in addition to the pdf, thus it would be easy to produce them in all of the combinations of voices you require.
This is a last resort. The problem with that is that the performance will be totally flat dynamically, and perfectly quantized. The idea of the recordings is the produce something that can be interacted with musically by a student. It ideally needs to be not only a real performance but also a good real performance that encourages bringing forth contrapuntal lines and using varied musical touches etc. etc.
I'll be happy to help, even if all I can do is proof read. I write out an open score by hand whenever I learn a fugue. The process of actually writing it out is helpful for me, so I probably wouldn't use a prepared open score myself, but it's still a great idea. I'll have a look at the C major you posted.
I checked the open score of the C major fugue against my Willard Palmer (Alfred) edition and did not find any wrong notes. Looks good.