People are sewn into their skins for life and cannot alter any of the seams, at least not with their own hands. - Kafka
Chorales
2008, October 17
JSB Chorales
What is on JSBChorales?
The core of JSBChorales is the set of four-part harmonized chorales.
I have added a few other chorale-based pieces, but they are extra bonuses.
The two lists that contain everything on the site are:
the four part chorales
some (as in a few) organ chorales, chorale fantasias, embellished chorales.
If the piece is not on these two lists, it is not on the site. Unless I live to be 150 years old and have very little else to do, I doubt that most of the organ chorales will make it to the site.
Sets of the files are available in zipped format.
2008, September 30
Wedding Chorales
Three chorales with horns
At last, another group of four part chorales is uploaded. The three Wedding chorales, BWV 250, 251 and 252 all have two trumpets added to the four voices. The first horn doubles the soprano, and the second horn has a more difficult time adding counterpoint with lots of eighth notes, and even two 32nd notes at one point. Good luck to the second trumpet.
This page has links to download the midi files.
This page, down toward the bottom, has links to download the mp3 files.
Enjoy!
2008, August 31
Recuperation and Revision
Posted today: chorales from the motets. Completes chorales from known cantatas and motets.
Slowly the routine is returning to normal. My back injury is healing; the revision is slowly resuming. Today I uploaded the final set of chorales from known cantatas and motets. Also included in the upload is BWV 1.6 for the Annunciation, which I accidently left out of the chronology.
An mp3 file was also uploaded for BWV 157.5, somehow it got missed in the chorales for the Purification of Mary.
The second part of the revision is the set of four part chorales from BWV 250 to 438. So 217 down and 188 to go.
2008, April 22
Cross relation
A 'true' cross relation in measure 3 in a chorale from BWV 114.
Note: Revision and correction to the analysis below, posted May 26, 2008.
In BWV 114.7, measure 3 and measure 7, beat 1 to 2 in the tenor and bass have an E flat in the tenor and an E natural in the bass. The NBA edition and the Barenreiter edition of the chorales show a courtesy accidental on the E flat which does not appear in Kalmus or the Budapest edition. I surmise this is to reinforce the unexpected notation of this true cross relation.
So, why might Bach have done this? The phrase is in g minor; the bass starts on the tonic, leaps up to the dominant, climbs by the ascending minor scale to the tonic, then descends by the descending minor scale to the fourth, steps up to the dominant, then falls back down to the tonic where it started. The tenor starts on the tonic, steps down to the leading tone (the raised seventh of the scale), leaps up to the lowered sixth degree of the g minor scale, then steps downward to the tonic, then down to the leading tone, and back up to the tonic. Two very elegant melodic lines.
Listen to the bass line
Listen to the tenor line
When these two melodic lines are played against one another a harmonic progression results, which I speculate might be read as shown in the above analysis.
Listen to bass and tenor together
Listen to the complete phrase
Here is an excellent site for a discussion of harmonic progressions.
Home page for Robert Frank's Theory on the Web.
Wikipedia definition of a cross relation
2008, April 11
New mp3 files
Thank you, John W. McCoy, now there can be MP3 files of the four part chorales played on an organ.
I have become very tired of the synthesized instrument sounds in QuickTime available for the sound files of my chorales. I long for a great baroque church organ sound, like that used by James Pressler on the Virtual Baroque website. Of course, his files are created with Hauptwerk and it would cost $430 for the most minimal hardware and software to run this on my computer. Add to that, I am not an organist and do not understand the program, and the learning curve would be about a year just to set up some four part chorales.
So I looked around for another program. Windows users have a SourceForge program called MyOrgan, but no Mac version, or even a Linux version. Then I stumbled on Soundfonts.
Thanks to John W. McCoy there is a free organ soundfont, JEUX, available on the web.
As instructed, I loaded the JEUX organ soundfont into the ~/Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks in my Mac, then chose the Advanced tab in QuickTime preferences and chose Jeux as the default synthesizer. Voila, a new set of sounds. I selected a set of voices I liked, saved the .mov file, then converted it to an MP3 in iTunes.
The soundfont with QuickTime is free, and it will give me room to experiment with different stops. The list of organ stops for the Jeux soundfont is here.
Listen to the mp3: BWV 264 Als der gütige Gott vollenden wollt sein Wort
2008, March 31
Twelve years on the Web
Today marks the twelfth anniversary of the chorales on the web.
Twelve years ago today, the four part harmonized chorales were made available on the web for download. There have been years of revisions and corrections, thanks to many readers. At that time there were a few other people involved in Bach websites, Dave Grossman, and Jan Koster and Jan Hanford at JSBach.org. Since then many, many people have contributed to websites with music files, biographical information, discussions of Bach's works and their recordings. There is also much literature pertaining to the theory of the music: fugue, counterpoint, and the practices of harmony.
The web has truly become a great resource, thanks to all the people involved in these seriously important sites.
2007, December 26
BWV 248.19
For Christmas Day Two from Bach
J.E. Gardiner with the alto aria from the Christmas Oratorio, Christmas Day 2, BWV 248.19.
2007, October 29
How the Files are Built
An explanation of how the midi, QuickTime and PDF files are built for JSBChorales.net
Notes are put into the Coda Finale notation program with the regular computer keyboard, using the Speedy Entry tool. The resulting Finale file is not the result of a performance, there is no midi keyboard involved, no articulation, no phrasing, no rubato, just straight notes. The file is then saved as a midi file, with each voice or part assigned to its own channel.
The midi file is imported into QuickTime, where the instruments are assigned to each part.
PDFs are made from the Print dialog box in Finale.
I make no pretense at being a pianist, or any sort of performing musician. I take lessons sometimes and like to fool around, but my job precludes serious study at this time.
