MiniSeries! 5: Canonic Revisions Part One

The subject of the last several episodes has been Bach’s canonic variations on a Christmas tune by Martin Luther himself. A major inquiry into this work is its existence in two versions: engraved and handwritten. The published version (for reasons explained in the episode) doesn’t fully solve the canonic lines, as seen here:

Notice how the notes of the bottom line don’t continue after the fifth note!

See two other canons, each with the comes omitted:

Variatio 2 omits the follower after only three notes, while the last image shows the second voice dropping out after two full bars.

Because of such condensed notation, a copy working out the solutions would be necessary for anyone wishing to play the work; Bach himself made one— and couldn’t stop himself from making very minor changes. Those intriguing revisions are the subject of this episode.

P.S. In the episode I mention that for time’s sake, I cut three revisions from our comparative study of the canon at the 7th. For reference, they are found below. The staves show the pedals and left hand, engraving copy on top, followed by the handwritten copy:

Bar 7:

Bar 13:

Bar 22:

P.P.S. I received a notification that the featured recording of Stravinsky conducting his own arrangement is banned in certain countries in which I have listeners. Pardon me if the sound drops out at the end of the episode! If this happens, you’ll have to look the piece up on your own: it can be found searching Stravinsky’s music under the title “Choral-Variationen” (or “Chorale Variations” in other languages) with either W83, K087, or BH-2629 as the catalogue number.

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