Finally a new video! This one was a lot of fun to make and I figured out a few things which will help me on future videos. That being said, there are some points I wanted to address, if you are interested in reading them :) 1. Mixing approaches: The more I’m experimenting on this channel, the more I realize why certain things are traditionally done the way they are. I have been mixing Jazz and classical analysis in my past videos, and also on this one. For Ravel and Chopin in particular that worked really well, as their harmonic language is already very closely related to Jazz harmony. For pieces like this one, that follow a much more traditional harmonic approach (duh!) it is - at the very least - redundant to spell out every exact degree as e.g. bIII as there is only one possible third degree in a classical minor context and that is of course the minor, not the major one. So for these pieces I may switch to "proper" classical analysis in the future, which is a nice challenge because I will have to (re-)learn a few technical things then. But yeah, that's why I wrote e.g. #VIIo7 or II7 (exact position of the chords) as well as /I (Roman numeral) for bass pedals and /3 (Arabic numeral) for inversions. 2. Why Eb instead of C minor from bar 9? As I already said in the video, there are valid arguments for both interpretations. Exaggerating a bit here to make a point, but for me who is coming more from a Jazz theory background, I wouldn’t even make a distinction between C minor and Eb Major as they are relative keys. What ultimately pointed me towards Eb Major were the Bb7 chords in bar 10 and 13 which, obviously, both resolve to Eb and thus confirm the key of Eb Major, and the absence of C minor chords in this section. 3. Audio nerd things ahead: I used a little broom cabinet as a recording booth for this one. However, I didn’t put any kind of damping material in it, so after recording I noticed a slightly bathroomy sound. Do you even notice/care about any of that?! :D 4. Somehow I made quite a few little errors on this one when I wrote the script which I only noticed after I had recorded the voice-over, so I had to cut and re-arrange some of my phrases, which ended up working surprisingly well. If you feel like there are some sudden shifts in my narration, this is probably why. Again, does anyone even notice? I’m curious to get feedback! 5. Speaking of feedback, as I said in the video, it feels really nice to get so much positive and constructive feedback on my videos. If there is anything you notice, don’t hold back to write it in the comments - I really am eager to learn! :) Prelude performance recorded on 26 Dec 2022 at Trio Musikhaus Schenefeld

Thank you for posting! I am currently going through them and am now on the third fugue! Really enjoyed your analysis and it helps bring more life to the piece, kind of like the bonus features to a movie you already liked :-D. One thing I noticed while learning this was that during the C7 and Fm section before the end, the last little part of the run is actually 64th notes. You have to go slower and then speed up on the way down. Thanks again for sharing! Keep it up!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I have been struggling to analyze this piece. This is so helpful!!!

Loving the depth, Bach's music deserves these well made analysis videos, do keep making more!

Thank you for the analysis. I am learning this piece and I really like the music theory behind it. Keep posting analysis of Bach’s music!

Excellent analysis! I’m studying this gem in these days - your comments are very useful.

Just popped up on my playlist. I stopped what I was multitasking, and watched it in its entirety. Did not understand a thing but the way you presented it was very captivating.

Great! Thank you!

Wait now I see some further elaboration or fortspinnung of this pattern leading up to the end, wow this is brilliant!

Nice video, and it's really nice whenever I encounter anyone who recognises the emotion and harmonic tension in this piece! 🙂 A relatively minor point: I don't agree with your identification of harmonies in bars 23-24 (7:09 to 7:16). Bar 23 is a 2nd-inversion tonic, and bar 24 is a 3rd-inversion submediant 7th; the secondary dominant in bar 22 does not resolve directly onto a dominant, but does so indirectly by a i64-to-V progression, with the i64 being bars 23-24 [where the submediant harmony in bar 24 essentially arises from the A flat in the top voice occurring as an upper auxiliary note relative to G in i64], and then the resolution in bar 25 being a dominant 9th.

So when you're in the minor mode and have F7/Eb that goes to B diminished / D to c minor, I think it's worth noting that in the context of baroque norms and this piece, that IV7 in any of the inversions that comes right from the melodic minor is also a completely standard way to get back to c minor. It could be a V7/Bb major or it could just be IV7 in c minor with that b3 2 1 bass motion, which can also be a #6 #7 1 bass motion when the same thing is in a different inversion. It's standard material from at least before Corelli and you see it in minor rule of the octave in a different inversion where on that raised 6th degree, a chord of the sixth is used on both degrees 6 and 7 on the way up. Now unlike in rule of the octave when degree 6 is reached by degree 5, if you start anywhere else where the note that would be the 7th of IV, degree 3 of the minor key, is prepared, you can have the 7th too as is there. I think it's easier to understand this by figured bass and melodic and bass motions with harmonization, because I never would have understood anything practical with it before I was practicing this continuo stuff. Why? It has you practice the patterns and it gives predictive power. For example, if you consider the "page 1", also called "the Lully", or the discant bass clausula which this piece basically opens with a variant of, and then you also understand variations of the tied bass version of the circle of fifths sequence in 4 voices which starts the same way (that is starting with i, then using VI6 to avoid parallel fifths getting to ii dim 42 [c in bass for previous two], v 65, i 42 [Bb in bass], iv 65, VII 42 [Ab in bass], III 65, VI 42 [G in bass], ii 65, v 42 [F in bass], i 65, IV 42 [note the raised third is absolutely necessary to avoid an augmented 2nd leap if you're ending this sequence this way], vii diminished 6th, and FINALLY i. You will see that Bach does the tonicized version with #4 2, and just 6 instead of 65 chords, and that he cuts off the sequence early. After III6, he does VI6 iidim III which is also IV6 vii I in Eb major. Getting to degree 3 in the bass, all you gotta do is move the 3 voice triad up a major 2nd to get IV 4 2, which is followed by vii dim 6 i. So I would say that the bass notes of these 6th chords happen to be G and C is an incidental occurrence that Bach couldn't have been unaware of, but that the most important aspect is that he aborts the sequence to do ^6 ^7 ^1 in Eb major, that Eb is transformed to an F7 and while the bass reverses its way back down to C, you have now in an inner line the ^#6 ^#7 ^1 in c minor. These things so far are all continuations and variations of the very simple discant bass clausula it starts with because it is basically the same thing as the 6 / #4 2 sequence. The 6 7 1's are kind of a finisher to the sequence. After that you see he prolongs the c minor and then he does a little work down to G7 and it's basically over because the rest of it is his breakdown kind of ending tricks.

Why 38? Prelude in C Major BWV 846 has only 35 measures