I go to the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco and too many times I hear from my colleagues that they are frightened to play Bach because they find the interpretive part of his works intimidating. Although it’s true that classical guitarists, and musicians in general perhaps, view J.S. Bach as a technical feat to overcome and then fall flat when you get down to the musical aspect of it, it does not have to be that way. Counterpoint, my dear Watson, is they key here and I fear that classical guitarists are too used to the writings during the classical and romantic period which focus on the harmonic patterns rather than the linear contrapuntal structure which is an integral part of any self-respecting Baroque composer. Perhaps I shouldn’t be too harsh seeing as I had a remarkable teacher by the name of Stan Funicelli who was very knowledgable in the subject of counterpoint and he was able to guide me through the intricacies of it, but the fact that all guitar teachers are not incorporating this into their lessons when teaching about Bach (as well as other composers) is certainly problematic.
When it comes to counterpoint, Bach is King.
I don’t want to get too much into interpreting Bach as that could take way too much time and would be an encyclopedia-sized book rather than a blog post, however to talk about Bach and the tabooed Augmented 2nds, I have to delve briefly into that. Anyone who has taken a Music Theory class knows about stepwise motion of lines as without it a piece of music would have no direction and would turn into a jumble of notes with no direction. It is because of this that an Aug 2nd was rarely used by composers in the Baroque period: it would create a break in the line and sound more like an arpeggiation then a line. We are taught in music theory classes when writing four part harmonies that you never create this break in the line and if you do, you have to resolve it in the opposite direction of the leap by step. When it is pointed out that Bach will do this at times without resolving the leap, the student will be confused when the answer is “well that’s an exception to the rule.”
Um….what?
An “exception” to the “rule”? What does that even mean? And why can he do it but we can’t?
Well the answer to that is because Bach is such a badass that he never breaks any rules by incorporating an Aug 2nd thanks to how meticulously thought out his counterpoint is.
That’s right, Bach beats the system by using the system. That’s how amazingly sneaky he was.
Bach frequently uses a Aug 2nd, such as a F and a G# together, in a short scale wise pattern as if this was no more than a Major or minor 2nd, which can make his music sound almost exotic and certainly adds a mysteriously beautiful quality to the section. However why is this allowed? It is because in the next beat or on the same beat in the next measure, he will usually resolve this so you discover that the G# was never actually part of the line to begin with! That’s right, he actually did just create a break in the line and he doesn’t care that he’s continuing without resolving it because he will resolve it in the next measure, you just won’t realize it until then. He uses this device to create tension in his works, and it’s the amazing control he has over the building and decreasing of tension that makes him stand out as the amazing composer he is.
In the picture below you can see a two measure excerpt from the Prelude of the Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor (read in bass clef), one of my favorite of all his pieces. In the two note pick up to the third beat of the measure (starting on the F to G#) we have the aug 2 and then it moves up to an A as if that resolves it, but then it leaps right back down to the F as if that was the start of an arpeggiation so with the D, F, A, G#, and the C it just sounds like a D9 chord. This is thinking harmonically and will sound very different then if you play it while keeping the counterpoint in mind.
In reality, it is two lines going at the same time: the F holds over under the G# and A while the G# and A simply ring in the ear until the line is continued in the third beat of the next bar as it goes up to the B.
It takes a while to get used too this new way of thinking, but once you begin to understand it, you begin to see that something you originally thought was a 7 or 9 chord was really 2 or 3 lines moving at the same time around each other, it simply might take a measure to continue the line. Once you see it in this view, though, you gain a new insight into the puzzle that is the Bach manuscripts and a whole new world of possibilities is opened on how to perform Bach, which notes to hold over and which notes to cut off.
Not only that, but it becomes exciting when you see all the ways the Bach defied traditional ways of writing in the Baroque period but he never broke any rules, he just slithered his way around them because that was how phenomenal of a composer he was!
the music corner 