Bach Scholar - Tempos

[samwitdangol]

Hello!

At the beginning of his Bach Invention and Sinfonia videos, BachScholar states that he has used an "innovative science method" to figure out the ideal tempo that Bach would have wanted. Does anybody happen to know what this "innovative science method is?" I'm curious; I can't understand how someone can figure out what tempo Bach would have wanted.

[quantum]

Even if one could determine the "ideal" tempo Bach would have wanted, what would that mean for your own playing of this music?  Tempo is informed by many factors such as the instrument, performance space, and acoustic.  Could the composer possibly have accounted for every permutation of performance variable in determining his "ideal" performance tempo? 

I find ears as one of the best informants for determining tempo. 

[samwitdangol]

Even if one could determine the "ideal" tempo Bach would have wanted, what would that mean for your own playing of this music?  Tempo is informed by many factors such as the instrument, performance space, and acoustic.  Could the composer possibly have accounted for every permutation of performance variable in determining his "ideal" performance tempo? 

I find ears as one of the best informants for determining tempo.

Yes, I agree. There's no such thing as the "ideal" tempo, because tempo is subjective.
I'm just curious as to how someone today could figure the tempo that someone three-hundred years ago wanted.

[brogers70]

Hello!

At the beginning of his Bach Invention and Sinfonia videos, BachScholar states that he has used an "innovative science method" to figure out the ideal tempo that Bach would have wanted. Does anybody happen to know what this "innovative science method is?" I'm curious; I can't understand how someone can figure out what tempo Bach would have wanted.

I can't remember exactly, but it had something to do with tempi such that the time it takes to play the prelude is some simple fraction of the time it takes to play the fugue, or vice versa. It seemed pretty arbitrary to me.

[samwitdangol]

I can't remember exactly, but it had something to do with tempi such that the time it takes to play the prelude is some simple fraction of the time it takes to play the fugue, or vice versa. It seemed pretty arbitrary to me.

Thank you!

[perfect_pitch]

At the beginning of his Bach Invention and Sinfonia videos, BachScholar states that he has used an "innovative science method" to figure out the ideal tempo that Bach would have wanted. Does anybody happen to know what this "innovative science method is?" I'm curious; I can't understand how someone can figure out what tempo Bach would have wanted.

BachScholar is a pompous arsehole who thinks he knows better than he really does. I questioned him once about a performance he was uploading as he played the piece accenting it like you would in a 12/16 manner, instead of standard semiquavers in a 3/4 time signature and he went off in a tirade, claiming I was an ignoramus (or something similar), and when other people backed me up - he started disabling comments for his videos.

He also claims to be a publisher, but it's been proven that he takes out of print scores, trims margins a little and sells it as if it is his.

I wouldn't listen to anything he says.

[samwitdangol]

BachScholar is a pompous arsehole who thinks he knows better than he really does. I questioned him once about a performance he was uploading as he played the piece accenting it like you would in a 12/16 manner, instead of standard semiquavers in a 3/4 time signature and he went off in a tirade, claiming I was an ignoramus (or something similar), and when other people backed me up - he started disabling comments for his videos.

He also claims to be a publisher, but it's been proven that he takes out of print scores, trims margins a little and sells it as if it is his.

I wouldn't listen to anything he says.

I looked through some past threads and noticed that he has quite a reputation here at PianoStreet.
I also noticed that most of his videos have comments disabled.
Is he really the same as he was a few years ago? Still a fraud?

[dogperson]

I looked through some past threads and noticed that he has quite a reputation here at PianoStreet.
I also noticed that most of his videos have comments disabled.
Is he really the same as he was a few years ago? Still a fraud?

He has not changed one fraction of an inch

[samwitdangol]

He has not changed one fraction of an inch

What a disappointment. He really doesn't seem like a bad person when you first go to his channel.

[v1ct0r]

My teacher taught me about this, first of this applies to some of his works not all, but there is a technique called PROLATIO in which for example the c minor prelude the beginning is played exactly half the tempo as the middle section marked presto which is two times the speed then the end is back at the original tempo. Another crazy thing I’ve heard is Benjamin Zander talking about playing the prelude in c Major twice as fast or faster because he believes the repeated broken chords was because the harpsichord did not sustain and so it acted as a sustain however with modern pianos the sustain is there and would make this far too murky. Many people have claimed they found the formula but it really depends on many things like the decay, the harmony, harmony rhythm, style, mood of the piece, voicings, it’s open to interpretation there’s even a pianist who doesn’t use any pedal in Bach to mimick the harpsichord style and uses his fingers only to sustain which is foolish since we can enhance the music with pedal. My teacher specialized in Bach studies and interpretation and Juilliard so that PROLATIO technique is where he learned it. Hope that helps