As Ros kindly informed me the video I originally posted here of Joanna Macgregor playing some Bach did not work for other people.  All a bit technical, something about the video’s privacy settings.  If you still want to see the Joanna Macgregor video described below I am hoping the below link will work. If it doesn’t let me know.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm1b9FtfRsg

You won’t be disappointed.  Below is what I said about it.

I am not quite sure how to develop this page yet.  I thought I would kick start it with some very classy piano playing from Joanna Macgregor. 

She talks in the short interview about counter subject.  Briefly Bach wrote in something we call counterpoint.  Today most music tends to be written with a melody and harmony.  On the piano the melody is usually played by the right hand whilst the left hand plays chords.  In counterpoint it is as if two melodies, sometimes more are being played at once.  There is usually a main theme that is introduced in one part, then it is developed by another part and then another theme or counter subject is introduced.

The short extract of Bach I play in my quiz post shows this counterpoint at work.  The different voices are most obvious in the third clip because the flute is playing the right hand part.  In the last clip I have abandoned counterpoint, replaced the left hand with chords, given it a bit of a swing rhythm and improvised the melody.

Bringing out the different voices on piano alone is very hard.  I love the way Macgregor uses her right hand at points as if it is plucking guitar strings.  The prelude and fugue would often have been played on a clavichord in Bach’s day where the strings are plucked and not struck (as on a modern piano).

Here is another lovely Bach video.  A prelude and fugue played by Angela Hewitt.