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Prelude in C Major (Bach) - Behind the Score (Episode 5) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-10 18:03:17
Edited:
2024-06-04 22:16:32
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

In this episode of Behind the Score, we're going back to basics. We're looking at the famous Prelude in C Major by J. S. Bach, marveling at the piece's simplicity and timeless appeal. I'm taking this opportunity to give a bit of a refresher on an approach to music theory and roman numeral analysis. Hope you enjoy!

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Files

Prelude in C - Behind the Score - Ep. 5

We're going back to basics with Bach's Prelude in C from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. We look at how to complete a roman numeral analysis with a piece of music that makes use of diatonic, chromatic, and pedal-point harmonies.

Comments

Peter Tutak

Great lecture, thank you, and you chose probably the best piece to base it on. You take the time to provide context behind the analysis which tends to fill the gaps in what some of us were expected to 'make a quantum leap across' in learning. This is extremely important to those of us who are/were 'one-liners', i.e. not pianists. As such the chordal elements and their definition became a harder road to hoe because we couldn't readily see the 'geometry' that made them up. Example: your explanation of secondary dominants and subdominants was lucid. Again, nice work. It was a pleasure to listen to; some parts twice. (And it took me back to Procol Harum's "Repent Walpurgis" where the first 12 measures of the Prelude are used as a bridge between sections.)

John Sawyer

I loved this but I don't use the number notations etc. I use b, c and d for the inversions. Is there anything special in the method you use or is it just a difference in the way it is taught?

Dale S Josephs

John: many European schools teach "Ia/b/c" to indicate root/inversion positions of chords. A lot of American schools teach "6/3", "6/4" to represent inversions. Both are equally valid, the 6/3 style hearkens back to baroque period conventions of annotating figured bass lines, and then defining the interval to the chord tones above it.

Wolfgang Brunner

First of all: thank you for diving more deeply in some theoretical approach analyzing the harmony.

Wolfgang Brunner

First often you have to look forward to recognize the function. This contradicts the flow of the music. Shouldn't you be aware of the function without looking forward? Secondly when will you change to a new tonika (I)? Especially in romantic or younger music you get to the limits of this view, Maybe you can analyze us sometimes a "younge"r piece where these ambiguity is shown?

MPHawk

I have to say, the inclusion of the "Schwencke measure" at m23 really threw me for a minute. I pulled out my old copy just to confirm I wasn't crazy, then looked it up. I had never encountered it before.