J.S. Bach’s inventiveness and creativity of the theme and variations and fugal forms are on display in his Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 for pipe organ. This fantastic video by musician and software engineer Stephen Malinowski graphically visualizes the score.
The piece opens like a traditional passacaglia, in triple time, with the ground bass stating the melody as the theme in a grave sarabande-like manner.
The first variation lasts two iterations of the theme, with a syncopated figure. At the small scale, the contour is rising and falling, whereas the large scale shows a mostly falling figure.
The first variation has a relatively consistent rhythm throughout, and the second variation continues with constant eighth notes, with more variant contours, with rising and falling figures.
The third variation introduces a 1+a 2+a 3+a (π π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π π ‘π ‘) figure, with a continuation of the full-length bass figure.
The fourth variation has a similar figure, but instead of having a linear stepwise figure, there is instead an arpeggiated motion, and the bass line no longer has whole and half notes the entire time, replacing that with a more bouncy [1 (2) (3)+a | 1…] (π ⋮ π½ ⋮ πΎ π ‘π ‘) figure.
The fifth variation has rising sixteenth notes, with 3 per voice and a longer tone following it, with the return of the original ground bass.
The fifth variation morphs into the sixth, replacing the rising sixteenths with falling sixteenths.
The seventh variation blends the contour of the fifth and sixth variations.
The eighth variation has staccato arpeggios to lighten up the texture after three very thickly scored variations, including mostly arpeggios of chords in the root position.
Variation nine has identical rhythms in the ground bass, tenor, and alto voices, with the soprano voice moving up and down in a scalar fashion.
At variation ten, two voices drop out and the ground bass’s theme moves to the soprano voice, with another scale moving up and down the keyboard in the left hand.
The soprano carries the melody through the eleventh variation, and the other voices return with eighth notes and sixteenth notes in falling thirds.
The twelfth variation is more lightly scored once again, with the melody from the soprano staying in the alto and tenor voices in a [3e+a | 1] (π ‘π ‘π ‘π ‘ | π ) figure with a twisting contour.
Variation thirteen has two consistent interlocking rhythms: [1+ (2)e+a (3)e+a] (π
π
⋮ πΏπ
‘π
‘π
‘ ⋮ πΏπ
‘π
‘π
‘) in the right hand and [(1)e+a 2 3e+a)] (πΏπ
‘π
‘π
‘ ⋮ π
⋮ π
‘π
‘π
‘π
‘) in the left hand, with arpeggios of root position chords through the variation.
The arpeggios continue in variation fourteen, instead leaving only one note played at a time, all rising arpeggios. The ground bass notes appear on beats 1 and 3 as they have the entire piece, but lasting only one quarter of the beat.
Variation fifteen has an interesting motion, with notes of triads characteristic of C minor being approached from the note below, starting with the top note and moving down. This once again uses the full ground bass, underlining the [(1)e+a 2e+a 3+] (πΏπ ‘π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π ‘π ‘π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π π ) rhythm of the variation.
Variation sixteen breaks out into triplets in two voices, rising and falling down the keyboard, occasionally straying from the general rhythmic feel.
The seventeenth variation resembles the third in rhythm, but uses a down-up contour with the [(1)+a 2+a 3] (πΎπ ‘π ‘ ⋮ π π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π ) rhythm.
Variation eighteen uses an up-down-down-up, circling around the note of each chord, with a dialogue of this figure between the soprano and tenor voices.
The nineteenth and final variation finishes off the passacaglia with the entrance of a fifth voice, so that the outer of the top 4 voices (1 and 4) have the twisting figure at the same time and the inner voices (2 and 3) have it at the same time as well, with the ground bass stating the theme one last time before the fugue allows it to rest.
The fugue has constant [(1)+2+3+] (πΎπ ⋮ π π ⋮ π π ) in the first countermelody and constant sixteenth notes in the second countermelody. It continues as a typical Bach-style fugue with some short departures from the original theme for a little bit of variety.
For the first time the theme is presenting in a major tonality (first in E♭, later in B♭).
A set of trills signals the last statement of the theme in the soprano voice, the countermelodies in alto and bass, and the tenor filling in the space to create a wide texture.
A [1 (2)+ 3+ | 1...] (π ⋮ πΎπ ⋮ π π | π ...) figure slowly opens to a fermata on a first-inversion D♭ chord, the Neapolitan sixth (N6).
The piece ends with a movement between the tonic major I (C) and iv (Fm) chords via the secondary dominant V7/iv (C7), throwing in the D♭ of a C7♭9 chord to emphasize the final expansive resolution to C major, ending with 5 voices and both feet of the bass for the final chord.
Hope you enjoyed this fantastic piece! Check back for more posts, share your comments below, and let others know about this post!
All score excerpts are taken from the 1867 Bach-Gesellschaft edition by Breitkopf and HΓ€rtel (Leipzig) via IMSLP.org.
The piece opens like a traditional passacaglia, in triple time, with the ground bass stating the melody as the theme in a grave sarabande-like manner.
The first variation lasts two iterations of the theme, with a syncopated figure. At the small scale, the contour is rising and falling, whereas the large scale shows a mostly falling figure.
The first variation has a relatively consistent rhythm throughout, and the second variation continues with constant eighth notes, with more variant contours, with rising and falling figures.
The third variation introduces a 1+a 2+a 3+a (π π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π π ‘π ‘) figure, with a continuation of the full-length bass figure.
The fourth variation has a similar figure, but instead of having a linear stepwise figure, there is instead an arpeggiated motion, and the bass line no longer has whole and half notes the entire time, replacing that with a more bouncy [1 (2) (3)+a | 1…] (π ⋮ π½ ⋮ πΎ π ‘π ‘) figure.
The fifth variation has rising sixteenth notes, with 3 per voice and a longer tone following it, with the return of the original ground bass.
The fifth variation morphs into the sixth, replacing the rising sixteenths with falling sixteenths.
The seventh variation blends the contour of the fifth and sixth variations.
The eighth variation has staccato arpeggios to lighten up the texture after three very thickly scored variations, including mostly arpeggios of chords in the root position.
Variation nine has identical rhythms in the ground bass, tenor, and alto voices, with the soprano voice moving up and down in a scalar fashion.
At variation ten, two voices drop out and the ground bass’s theme moves to the soprano voice, with another scale moving up and down the keyboard in the left hand.
The soprano carries the melody through the eleventh variation, and the other voices return with eighth notes and sixteenth notes in falling thirds.
The twelfth variation is more lightly scored once again, with the melody from the soprano staying in the alto and tenor voices in a [3e+a | 1] (π ‘π ‘π ‘π ‘ | π ) figure with a twisting contour.
The arpeggios continue in variation fourteen, instead leaving only one note played at a time, all rising arpeggios. The ground bass notes appear on beats 1 and 3 as they have the entire piece, but lasting only one quarter of the beat.
Variation fifteen has an interesting motion, with notes of triads characteristic of C minor being approached from the note below, starting with the top note and moving down. This once again uses the full ground bass, underlining the [(1)e+a 2e+a 3+] (πΏπ ‘π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π ‘π ‘π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π π ) rhythm of the variation.
Variation sixteen breaks out into triplets in two voices, rising and falling down the keyboard, occasionally straying from the general rhythmic feel.
The seventeenth variation resembles the third in rhythm, but uses a down-up contour with the [(1)+a 2+a 3] (πΎπ ‘π ‘ ⋮ π π ‘π ‘ ⋮ π ) rhythm.
Variation eighteen uses an up-down-down-up, circling around the note of each chord, with a dialogue of this figure between the soprano and tenor voices.
The nineteenth and final variation finishes off the passacaglia with the entrance of a fifth voice, so that the outer of the top 4 voices (1 and 4) have the twisting figure at the same time and the inner voices (2 and 3) have it at the same time as well, with the ground bass stating the theme one last time before the fugue allows it to rest.
The fugue has constant [(1)+2+3+] (πΎπ ⋮ π π ⋮ π π ) in the first countermelody and constant sixteenth notes in the second countermelody. It continues as a typical Bach-style fugue with some short departures from the original theme for a little bit of variety.
A set of trills signals the last statement of the theme in the soprano voice, the countermelodies in alto and bass, and the tenor filling in the space to create a wide texture.
A [1 (2)+ 3+ | 1...] (π ⋮ πΎπ ⋮ π π | π ...) figure slowly opens to a fermata on a first-inversion D♭ chord, the Neapolitan sixth (N6).
The piece ends with a movement between the tonic major I (C) and iv (Fm) chords via the secondary dominant V7/iv (C7), throwing in the D♭ of a C7♭9 chord to emphasize the final expansive resolution to C major, ending with 5 voices and both feet of the bass for the final chord.
Hope you enjoyed this fantastic piece! Check back for more posts, share your comments below, and let others know about this post!
All score excerpts are taken from the 1867 Bach-Gesellschaft edition by Breitkopf and HΓ€rtel (Leipzig) via IMSLP.org.
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