Bach - Left Hand Fingering Advice?

[scriabinophile]

I've agreed to play keyboard continuo in the Bach "Das Musikalische Opfer" Trio Sonata, BWV 1079, and there is a LH passage from the 4th movement that is giving me some trouble, due largely to the rather brisk tempo.

I'm going to include an image, below:


(If for some reason the image doesn't appear right away, it could be because is sometimes takes the server where I uploaded the picture a little time to process things.)

Anyway, if someone could suggest a fingering with which the entire passage can be played accurately at 80 bpm (ie: one 6-note group per beat), it would really help me out.

[kitty on the keys]

try starting with 2----use your scale fingerings ---placing the thumb after a black key....carry the hand and wrist thru each passage...angle the wrist in the direction you are going.....slight accent on the first note of each group....keeping the other notes light


Kitty on the Key

[liszt1022]

The light touch of harpsichord and organ avails for some creative fingerings that I wouldn't recommend on a hard-touch piano. But give this a shot! It takes a little getting used to- so I recorded myself using it to show that it can work.

112345  123345  123445  112345  122345  123345  1 2 1 2 1 5 1 23454

There's not individual attacks on the repeating fingerings, just pulling your finger off a black key onto a white one. It's a magic trick- the video looks like I'm going "12345" each beat but you hear 6 notes!

Are you figuring the bass yourself? I've got a score with right hand chords.
Also, six-note runs happen at the end of the movement too, I would use the same fingering style.

[scriabinophile]

Thanks for the suggestions.  

For now, it looks as if I'll be the only one carrying the bass line, and doing it on the piano, not on harpsichord. If we had a cellist and if I were playing harpsichord, I wouldn't feel so exposed on this run.

Up until now I've been playing most of the passage fairly well using an orthodox modern piano approach along the general lines of the suggestion:

try starting with 2----use your scale fingerings ---placing the thumb after a black key....carry the hand and wrist thru each passage...angle the wrist in the direction you are going.....slight accent on the first note of each group....keeping the other notes light

There is, however, one spot that is just downright awkward, especially at tempo.

Starting on 1 and sliding black-to-white in that 6-note group is definitely an improvement.  I'm not sure exactly what I'll end up doing for the entire passage -- or for the run at the end of the movement -- but the suggestion has helped a lot!  Thanks.  I'll keep experimenting with it.

Actually, we're doing three baroque trio sonatas. For this one and one other, I'm working off scores which have a realized RH. So I'm all set. (For the third trio sonata, I've written out my own part, which was a good exercise. It felt like I was back in music school theory class again.)

[kitty on the keys]

 ----yes try using some thumb slides.....they certainly can come in handy at times. Best of luck with your concert!

Kitty on the Keys