J.S. Bach

Hi,

Certif1ed wrote: Canon, fugue and round are simply types of contrapuntal writing in which all voices produce the same melody, with the exception of fugue, in which the different voices may develop in different directions.

Well, acutally no. A canon CAN develop "in different directions" in that the secondary voice(s) can be developed in inversion, retrograde, augmentation, diminution, modulation or any combinations thereof. It is, however, always said to be derived from the primary voice. A fugue, on the other hand, employs the same variations but introduces secondary melodic material as well as sequencing and stretto. All of this is ultimately beside the point, however, because I was not seeking a discussion of canonic imitation per se'. In my post I specifically asked for examples of prog rock outside of ELP and Gentle Giant that diliberately use canon and fugue.

The Pessimist wrote: As for prog I can only think of two bands at the moment that use contrapuntalism in an effective manner, and they are Opeth (in the acoustic sections) and Unexpect.

Edited by meptune - June 18 2009 at 01:34

if you want counterpoint, go and listen to Peter Hammill's opera "The Fall of the House of Usher". There is counterpoint in abundance on it.

I'm curious, in whose Prog Rock work, besides ELP and Gentle Giant, do you hear a direct influence of Bach? By "direct influence" I am speaking of counterpoint and polyphonic composition, i.e. specifically canon and fugue. Is there any prog artist today writing canons and fugues? Who today is deliberately using canonic imitation and it's concomitant variations in a Prog context? The only one I can think of is a Turkish Stick player named Akin Unver, but he hasn't released a CD that I know of. Do you know of any?

Edited by meptune - June 17 2009 at 03:31

If (improbable, according to me) God does indeed exist, Bach was obviously one of his closets sons....

BaldFriede wrote: Ricochet wrote: The T wrote: Curiously, mostly religious-inspired works... Bach dedicated his whole life, as well as his entire music,, to God. There are a few exceptions in his work though which show that the man had a sense of  down to ground humour too, like his "Coffee Cantata": "Ei, was schmeckt der Kaffee süße" ("Oh, how sweet the coffee tastes").

Wasn't talking about the distribution between sacred music and secular music, the outlines are quite clear in this case, I was just saying he justified his entire musical creating effort in that way.

The T wrote: Curiously, mostly religious-inspired works...

Bach dedicated his whole life, as well as his entire music,, to God.

I have a friend who plays organ for a local Lutheran church. He told that me it was a common practice in the church during the 19th century for the organist to play the chordal parts of a hymn as written for the first and last verses, but for the middle verses  the organist would typically improvise alternate chord voicings.

Edited by meptune - June 15 2009 at 12:39

My brother-in-law can do it but that's his full time job, improv piano for theater. For stage it's much more basic stuff, but his improvisations on his own are just incredible.