Topic by gtingley

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  • gtingley
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Topic: Minuets BMV Anh. 116 and 132 played on the J. Dohnal pianoforte

Here is my performance of one of the G major minuets from the Anna Magdalena Notebook which was compiled in 1729 by J. S. Bach. It is often played by Suzuki violin and piano students.

I am playing Ptq's J. Dohnal pianoforte of 1795. Preset is Recording, and I have altered the scale to be well-tempered which is different from equal tempered. I have maintained modern tuning at A = 440 just because I cannot stand to hear the piece sound lower than I am used to.

I have studied Baroque performance practice and have followed many of those guidelines as they pertain to tempo, dynamics, articulation, and ornamentation. I hope to add more ornaments in future editings.

https://soundcloud.com/george-tingley-8...wv-anh-116

I have now added another minuet, the BMV Anh. 132 in D minor. As before I am using the Dohnal pianoforte with Recording preset of two spaced omni mics. And the tuning is well-tempered once again. However, this piece is pitched down to A = 415 which is where it would have been heard in Bach's time. I had fun adding some elaborate ornamentation. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/george-tingley-8...m=facebook

Last edited by gtingley (25-09-2018 22:07)

Reply by _DJ_

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Re: Minuets BMV Anh. 116 and 132 played on the J. Dohnal pianoforte

Bach-Motoren-Verzeichnis? oder Bayerische-Minuet-Verzeichnis??

The Dohnal sounds quite nice here for this (though I'm still pining for an earlier Stein-type instrument from Modartt), but perhaps if you pitched it at the "usual" Baroque/Bach diapason of 415 then you wouldn't be quite so bothered as with other historical tunings (being as that it's exactly a semitone lower vs some "odd" fraction thereof)...?  Also, I'd encourage you to explore some of Brad Lehman's Bach temperaments (available in the scala file collection under lehman)—I'd wager that you'll like what you hear.  Finally (and this is something I noticed with your other recording of that little Haydn ditty), what's the story with all those agogic accents (kindly for lack of a better descriptor) you're doing before the downbeat?  I've been a performer and researcher of 18th century music on original instruments for several decades now and I neither know of any source that suggests this or any HIP performers that do this—to the contrary, all contemporary theorists and commentators for this music make clear that the practice of downbeat articulations (and of articulations in general) is one in which the space between the notes is taken away from the note previous and not some interjection into the metric structure, and certainly shouldn't be confused with notes inégales—so it's a curious little "feature" that you seem to be adding there...

In any event, it's good to hear other Pianoteq users explore the historic instrument collection and I'll look forward to hopefully hearing more of your contributions in this vein here. 

cheers,
dj

Matthieu 7:6

Reply by gtingley

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Re: Minuets BMV Anh. 116 and 132 played on the J. Dohnal pianoforte

DJ -

Thanks for your feedback.

I have sent you an email addressing the issues of accents.
In the case of the Bach, it was a matter of projecting several cases of hemiola figures.
In the case of Haydn, lower and slurred pickup notes tend to sound accented even when they are not.

A also found on-line an excellent article on tuning by Michael Rubinstein called "Well vs. Equal Temperment"  to be very helpful.

Just where is that scala file collection located? Thanks for your help with this.

George

Last edited by gtingley (26-09-2018 03:17)

Reply by Qexl

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Re: Minuets BMV Anh. 116 and 132 played on the J. Dohnal pianoforte

Hi George,

fascinating - I have little in the way of authenticity in mind but enjoy your playing - hats off.

Always find _DJ_' info highly enlightening - those decades in that area are to me pretty precious - and sincerely would cherish anything you both feel worthy of posting on the forum about any of these things.

Scala page Huygens-Fokker.org

That's a link to the page where you can download a zip with over 4800 scala tunings (ancient to nowadays - you can load them when in Pianoteq via the tuning section - just click the U symbol to open the advanced tuning section) - really great stuff - just scroll to bottom of this web page for the zip. I don't link direct to the zip because old fashioned netiquette also, the page has some info you may prize - and some instructions about using the zip on different OS's. BTW, in Pianoteq's adv. tuning section, there are selections "string tension" and "rebuild" - both giving different sound. Rebuild is like a piano built for the tuning whereas the other is factoring string tension in an existing frame.. quite the thing.

Pianoteq Studio Bundle (Pro plus all instruments)  - Kawai MP11 digital piano - Yamaha HS8 monitors