Bach and serial rows

Finally, I found the mag with the quote...from Keyboard's Bach
special issue, March 1985, Rosalyn Tureck says..."And when I was
studying composition with Schoenberg, he told me that Bach was the first
12 tone composer. The B minor fugue in Book I of the Well Tempered
Clavier was the first 12 tone composition; the subject is a perfect tone
row." I did, in fact, look at this piece years ago, and if my crusty
memory serves me, it was, indeed, a 12 tone row...yay for Bach...Hstick

Hate to sound like a fortune teller, or an extension of some psychic
hotline...it's not really me, you know, I would like to report on B minor in
Werckmeister's chromatic. This is the minor key that is most equally
divided, hence ideal for a fugue them that uses all semitones. Notice that
is the "perfect" fifth that suffers most from both ET and JI. Using all 12
notes for a theme in B Minor would make a most logical choice for Bach to
make.

B minor:

B = 0 C# = 198 D = 300 E = 498 F# =696 G = 804 A == 996 A# = 1104

Johnny Reinhard

--- In tuning@egroups.com, "Neil Haverstick" <STICK@U...> wrote:

http://www.egroups.com/message/tuning/17764

> Finally, I found the mag with the quote...from Keyboard's Bach
> special issue, March 1985, Rosalyn Tureck says..."And when I was
> studying composition with Schoenberg, he told me that Bach was the
first 12 tone composer. The B minor fugue in Book I of the Well
Tempered Clavier was the first 12 tone composition; the subject is a
perfect tone row." I did, in fact, look at this piece years ago, and
if my crusty memory serves me, it was, indeed, a 12 tone row...yay
for Bach...Hstick

Hi Neil!

Well, let's look at it again right now... I see the full chromatic
only after the full thematic statement of 20 pitches... there are 8
repeats (indicated within parentheses):

F#-D-B-G-(F#)-B-A#-E-D#-
C natural-(B)-(F#)-E#-(D)-C#-(B#)-(C#)-A-(F#)-G#

It takes quite a while to get to that final G# which is, of course,
crucial for completing the series... but there they are.

The Prelude, for all you jazz fans, is the one that always sounded to
me like a "walking bass"... one of my very favorites.

I notice that Johnny Reinhard has some particularly interesting
things to say about this key in Werckmeister, a little further down
in the posts...

_________ ______ __ __
Joseph Pehrson