kenjari | If it isn't Baroque... (Reply)

I have recently had a growing interest in playing Baroque music on the piano, after resisting doing so for years. See, I studied organ until I graduated from high school. And playing organ involves a steady diet of Bach, with a little Buxtehude or Pachelbel. Not much organ music of note was written from the end of the Baroque period until the end of the 19th century. Despite the resurgence of interest in the instrument at the close of the Romantic period and during the 20th century, the core of the organ repertoire is still largely music written before 1800. Thus, throughout college, I had very little interest in playing Baroque music, having had my fill. I concentrated instead on Romantic music.
But now, more than ten years since I stopped playing organ, I really want to go back to the music of Bach and Scarlatti. So I have. Yesterday I got a volume of Bach's keyboard music and a volume of Scarlatti to supplement the edition of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier that I already own. I sight-read through some of it during practice yesterday and today and I'm finding myself completely enchanted by the elegant counterpoint and insistent momentum of the rhythms. I particularly like the way the Baroque style sounds in the minor keys. And despite the completely tonal, common practice harmonies, Baroque treatment of dissonance can produce some rather pungent and surprising sounds. The figuration and ornamentation also just plain feels good to play in a purely physical way.