Hello fellow pianoteqers,
Check out this video where I play Bach's Suite No. IV using reverse keyboard mapping. The result is fascinating.
Here's the link to the essay/video:
http://tarekyamani.com/writings/phrygian-suite
Enjoy
You may wish to check out some of the "mirror fugues" from JSBach's Art of the Fugue BWV 1080. In these cases, JSB completely inverted the second half of the fugue in essentially the same manner as in your Partita IV example. There exists a feeling of "unfamiliar familiarity"!
Cheers,
Joe
Thanks Joe. I actually found lines in the WTC book I (Fugue in E Minor) that when played inverted sound like certain lines from the Art of Fugue but I wasn't aware that Bach used mirroring in the same way as in the video I posted. Do you know where exactly he did this in the Art of Fugue? I'd love to check it out so if you can share a link from that spot it would be highly appreciated.
Hello Mr. Tarek,
The enclosed URL is for BWV 1080, The Art of Fugue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrb0dHKJBR4
As you scroll to numbers #12 and #13, the Mirror Fugues, approximately 62 minutes into the video, you will find the "rectus" (referring to 'correct' or right side up version -- no dirty jokes, please) and the "inversus" versions. To find them quickly, just open up the "Show More" reference in the description.
Enjoy,
Joe
Many thanks for the link, I listened closely to both fugues and I still believe that Bach's technique of mirroring the fugues is entirely different than inverting the keyboard.
Inverting the keyboard is like as if you physically move to the other side of the piano (behind the piano) and play normally while imagining your middle C to be E. As you can hear in the French Suites, everything about the music is different expect for the rhythmic values of the notes. In the fugues no. 12 and 13, on the other hand, the key, melodic and harmonic contents are all drawn from the same D minor vocabulary and this is because while "flipping" the staff, Bach stayed within the D minor scale but when you invert the keyboard, the distance of half-steps and whole-steps between the notes remain exactly the same but the other way around which produces a completely different set of scales and, consequently, harmonic motion.
Interesting, it's like you are hearing the sound of you "mirror image performing".
Changeing subject just a little bit, I was wondering about if it's possible somehow to alter pianoteq model D preset called Hybrid (organ+piano) allowing to render Bach's original organ version of Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
I supose it would need to get more registers and the sound for organ's pedals. But how to do that?
I can imagine someone would say to use more instances of pianoteq on Cubase or similar, and altered the sound of each to try to get something like more registers and pedal's sound.
I don't understand much about organs, so I don't thinki I would be right person for this.
Tarek, if you liked to do a reversed version of Bach, maybe you are the right person to try this idea of mine for Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The hybrid sound of organ+ piano, in my opinion, it's very interesting and would fit very well.
Hello All,
Regarding a way to mirror image some more Bach, such as his BWV 565 Toccata and Fugue in d minor, I would suggest downloading a midi file of Liszt's or Busoni's piano transcription of the same work. Then import it to a sequencing program such as Cubase or Apple Logic Pro or Digital Performer, and then edit the midi file from within the sequencer.
I do not know for sure, but I think there are "note remapping" features in these commercial sequencers. It's no problem for the midi protocol, because one is only exchanging a given note ... for a certain other given note.
With the music of Bach, although the inverted work will sound foreign to our ears, there will still be "thematic relationships" that are easily recognized in his music.
Cheers,
Joe
Interesting, it's like you are hearing the sound of you "mirror image performing".
Changeing subject just a little bit, I was wondering about if it's possible somehow to alter pianoteq model D preset called Hybrid (organ+piano) allowing to render Bach's original organ version of Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
I supose it would need to get more registers and the sound for organ's pedals. But how to do that?I can imagine someone would say to use more instances of pianoteq on Cubase or similar, and altered the sound of each to try to get something like more registers and pedal's sound.
I don't understand much about organs, so I don't thinki I would be right person for this.Tarek, if you liked to do a reversed version of Bach, maybe you are the right person to try this idea of mine for Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The hybrid sound of organ+ piano, in my opinion, it's very interesting and would fit very well.
This photo is the exact depiction of what's going on, never thought of using this image to explain the reversal mapping, thank you for clarifying "the sound of you mirror image performing".
It would be very interesting indeed to try your idea of Toccata with the D4 hybrid. Joe's advice about how to approach this experimentation pretty much says it all.