Yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery, today is God's gift. - Eleanor Roosevelt
Chorales
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.
2007, October 27
Another Cross Relation
Another cross or false relation in BWV 248.5
Another example of a 'false' cross relation in measure 12 in a chorale from BWV 248, the Christmas Oratorio.
Listen to the illustration
View entire chorale
Listen to entire chorale
The C sharp in the alto part followed by an C natural in the soprano part in the illustration above would seem to fit all the criteria for a false or cross relation.
But, again the C sharp is at the end of a phrase, and the C natural is at the beginning of the next phrase.
So, once again, I don't think this qualifies as a true cross relation.
2007, October 08
Cross Relation
A cross or false relation in BWV 40.6?
A cross or false relation may exist between the alto and the soprano between measures 8 and 9 in a chorale from BWV 40.
Listen to the illustration
View entire chorale
Listen to entire chorale
Definitions:
False relation: In harmony, the appearance of a note with the same letter-name in different parts (or 'voices') of contiguous or the same chords, in one case inflected with a sharp or flat and in the other uninflected; e.g. E natural and E flat in the same chord or adjacent chords. American term is 'cross relation'. Partly from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, 1980, edited by Michael Kennedy.
False relations may exist (a) between two notes of the same chord; (b) between different parts of adjacent chords; (c) of a tritone between two notes in adjacent chords.
Wikipedia definition
Everything definition
The F sharp in the alto part followed by an F natural in the soprano part in the illustration above would seem to fit all the criteria for a false or cross relation. But, I ask, does it?
The soprano voice has the structure A A B B. Though the soprano exactly repeats the A and B, the harmonization of the repeated phrases is completely different. The alto F sharp is at the end of a phrase, and the soprano F natural is at the beginning of a new phrase, and in fact, measure 8 is the end of the part A and measure 9 is the beginning of the next part B. Thus, though the notes appear in adjacent chords on the paper, musically they seem as separated from one another as the two sides of a river. So I am not sure that these notes really stand in a false relation to one another.
2007, October 01
The Revision
The revision begins, based on the Complete Cantatas of J. S. Bach from Bärenreiter, the study score in 19 volumes.
The Complete Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, Bärenreiter 2007; Catalog number TP2004
Alphabetic index of the Complete Cantatas
BWV index of the Complete Cantatas
Today marks the start of the revision of all files on JSBChorales.net. This edition presents the cantatas in the order of the church calendar so the chorales from the cantatas will be uploaded in that order. For this 'definitive' revision (hopefully) I am starting this new page and am keeping the old corrections page as this archive. I will focus first on the four-part chorales, and leave the other, more complex chorales until after the four-part harmonizations are complete.
Each time a new upload occurs, all sets will be updated. New pdf sets will contain the new layout with the tenor part in the one octave down G clef. This file will now be the one linked on the pdf column of the list pages; the chorale with the tenor in the bass clef will be included in the sets, with the suffix 'f' (for F clef) in the file name. It will not be linked on the pages, but is included because it may be easier for keyboard players to read. Until the chorale is updated, the original file name will be the file with the tenor in bass clef; the change to the G clef tenor will not occur until the upload of the new revision.I know this will be confusing; unrevised pdfs will have tenor in bass clef, updated pdfs will have the tenor in the octave down G clef. A way around this would be to wait to upload the pdfs until the entire revision is complete but I would prefer to make the files available as they are done. Another solution would be to keep the bass clef file with the original name, and make a new name for the G clef file. However, this would entail changing every pdf name in my entire database and on every page of the web site - not feasible.
When the entire revision is complete, the standard file name will have the chorale with the tenor in octave down G clef, and the pdf with the tenor in bass clef will have an 'f' added to the name.
006206.pdf - tenor in octave down G clef
006206f.pdf - tenor in bass or F clef.
I am very excited about this project, mostly because I have wanted the set of full cantata scores for about 13 years, when I discovered them in the San Francisco Public Library. I am so happy that Bärenreiter has made this study score available. The link is at about the middle of the page, under "Highlights of our Program."
