Academic literature on the topic 'The Interpretation of Bach's Keyboard Works'

This study examines the five late keyboard works of Cesar Franck: the Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue and the Prelude. Aria, and Finale for piano, and the three organ chorales. The study focuses on harmonic and contrapuntal techniques and their interrelationships, placing the discussion in the context of an analysis of the whole piece. The primary goal is to identify the salient characteristics of each piece; a secondary goal is to identify common harmonic and contrapuntal aspects of Franck's style.

The keyboard toccatas of J. S. Bach, BWV 910-916, present a formidable challenge of interpretation to the modern-day performer. These works contain some of the most unusual compositional techniques to be found in Bach’s output due to their use of an improvisatory, virtuosic style inherited from the seventeenth century. While pianists of today are trained to perform with perfect fidelity to the score, the treatises from the time of Bach point to a rhythmically free approach to the improvisatory features of these toccatas. The goal of this treatise is to explore how the historical tradition from which Bach’s toccatas emerged influenced their stylistic characteristics with the purpose of applying this information to create an informed performance by today’s interpreters. In this effort, this treatise focuses on several broad categories in the process of understanding the inspiration and, therefore, the interpretation of these works. These categories include the genesis of the toccata as a genre, the compositional techniques associated with the toccata, Bach's personal contribution to the genre, and the interpretation of Bach's toccatas specifically.<br>text

Before 1933, Erwin Bodky actively participated in musical life in Berlin. When he was a student, the Prussian Government had given him grants in 1920 and 1921 to study with the distinguished composers Richard Strauss and Ferruccio Busoni. His international performing career was launched when, at the last minute, Bodky was asked to replace a pianist for a performance with Wilhelm Furtwängler. When he became a professor at the Staatlich Akademie für Kirchen- und Schulmusik in Charlottenburg in 1926, he immersed himself in early music, performing on harpsichord and clavichord and founding his own collegium musicum. His publications, Der Vortrag alter Klaviermusik (Berlin: Hesse, 1932) and Das Charakterstück (Berlin: Vieweg, 1933), promised a future wealth of scholarship. However, in 1933, Bodky was expelled from his teaching position because he was a Jew. After officials came to seize part of his instrument collection, he and his family fled to Amsterdam, where they were in exile for five years. In 1938, he managed to escape Europe by securing a position at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bodky would become one of the most important proponents of early music in the United States. Over the last twenty years of his life, he promoted historical instruments, performance practice, and forgotten early music repertoire. His many accomplishments in the United States include the founding of the Music Department at Brandeis University and the Cambridge Society for Early Music, the introduction and promotion of the collegium musicum, and the publication of the treatise The Interpretation of Bach’s Keyboard Works (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960). This thesis provides the first detailed examination of his influence in the United States. His roles as performer, scholar, and teacher are each explored. Relying upon unpublished archival material, academic records, memoirs, and numerous concert programs in addition to Bodky’s published writings, this study reveals that Bodky had a significant impact on how early music was performed, taught, and received in the United States.