Bach, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582

Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed and visualized by Stephen Malinowski.
FAQ

Q: I appreciate the animated graphical scores you make; how can I help?
A: There are many ways you can support my work:
free: watch my videos, like them, and share them with friends

Q: What do the colors mean?
A: The colors indicate different melodic lines in the piece. The part for pedal (the lowest part) is always violet, and there is one stop (starting at about 4:55) that is always blue, but the rest of the colors just indicate different melodic strands (and don't correspond in a consistent way to anything in the score).

Q: What instrument is this?
A: The sound comes from two Ahlborn-Galanti organ modules. Most of the stops come from the A-G Silbermann module, but the 32-foot pedal stops and the contrasting stop (the one at 4:55) come from the A-G Romantic module.

Q: What are the gray bars?
A: The gray bars show the theme of the passacaglia (the first part of which is also the main subject of the fugue). The colored bars show the note duration of the performance, but the grey bars (which is bigger so that you can see it when it's behind the performed notes) show the duration of the notated version of the theme in its standard form (which is often very different from how it appears in the piece at a given point).

Q: Where can I get the score?
A: Here:

Q: Could you please do a video of _______?
A: Please see this:

[decagonist]

no wonder critics and historians all claim that J.S. Bach is the greates composer without contest. he was on a whole other level of understanding music

[donwolter]

Welp, looks like the neighbors will be listening to Bach today.

[pelphro]

Just think- this genius wrote this at the age of 18. His mind set was from another realm to which no one can fully comprehend to this day. To me this is the greatest piece of organ literature ever written. Thanks for producing this!

[eblackbrook]

Bach laughs at metal musicians who think they are heavy.

[smalin]

I've played it on pedal harpsichord, and it's pretty nice --- a lot clearer sounding. But there are good aspects to the organ version too; I think they're complementary.

[jonasapeland]

11:55, the legendary neapolitan sixth chord... Such a historically substantial peice of music theory in just a single chord. For me this whole work just leads to that one chord, every time I hear it after the 10 minutes of the previous variations i feel the goosebumps coming.

[TxRxAxP]

this song i have your attention now? ok so this song is actually one of the best songs ever made. #bach  

[amigosnerds]

-Bach Is not a stream, but a sea

-Beethoven

[KMRamirez]

A Passacaglia was a musical form on which a bassline was stated as a theme, and then repeated with variations played over the top of it. A Chaconne is similar, but with a chord progression instead of a bassline. #themoreyouknow

[ullrichherz]

When I turned from pop to classics as a teenager, I bought my first vinyl with Bach's Toccata and Fugue. But the piece I really fell in love with was the Passacaglia! After 43 years it's still my favorite. The piano transcription of Igor Zhukov is great too. Being a non musician I appreciate Your optical animations a great deal! Thanks a lot for Your grand job.

[peterjongsma]

Must have blown the congregation of his Lutheran parish away.
Going to Church can be fun.

[archduke]

Stephen - i think your performance is lovely, and the animation is SO helpful in hearing what is happening.

[notatroll]

I love the gray bars, they really help to understand the fugue

[cevirthek]

A part of me just wants to do nothing and listen to this all day and I'm not even that into classical music, maybe I should listen to it more...

[Sign-oioc]

I broke the song into sections

0:08 - First Section (Passacaglia)
0:31 - Second Section
1:14 - Third Section
1:34 - Fourth Section
1:54 - Fifth Section
2:13 - Sixth Section
2:34 - Seventh Section
2:54 - Eighth Section
3:13 - Ninth Section
3:34 - Tenth Section
3:55 - Eleventh Section
4:15 - Twelfth Section
4:35 - Thirteenth Section
4:54 - Fourteenth Section
5:11 - Fifthteenth Section
5:33 - Sixteenth Section
5:53 - Seventeenth Section
6:12 - Eighteenth Section
6:35 - Nineteenth Section
6:56 - Twentieth Section
7:19 - Twenty-first Section (Fugue)

[tomweaver]

Bars 120-128, 5:11 - 5:32, are sublime, I've never heard anything like it in all of Bach, and no other recording scratches my itch like this one. The tones you chose make it sound like it belongs in 2001: A Space Odyssey. And the visual representation so pure, a perfect accompaniment. Bravo

[MrJdsenior]

I was trying to figure out why this allows so much more insight into the music than a sheet of notes to a non-pro musician. I expect that it is the fact that the temporal nature of "filling out" the active notes with highlights and colors (attack, sustain, release), along with the fact that the creator of this video took the time to split out the lines into a logical arrangement of each (theme, maybe) into easily readable lines in vertical position. In any case, it is fascinating to hear/watch...AND, for me, Bach IS the master of writing for the great organ (no snide comments from "lookers on", please).

Nice performance, BTW.

[catherineden.]

Added to my "Legendary videos" playlist :)

[Francis]

This is by far my favourite Bach organ piece, next to the great Fugue in G minor, both of which I listen to everyday. There is nothing with the quality of these recordings, Our organist at Church places this as a recessional piece at the end of Mass, and I am transfixed, not only because of the beauty of this piece of music, but because my Cathedral size parish Church (built by Hanson consecrated in 1850) who's inspiration was Pugin is ornate and high Victorian Gothic. The two are wedded in perfect harmony. I love this piece by the greatest composer who has ever lived!

[elementallobsterx]

Everything here is flawless; the synchronized rhythm between each lead, the choice of melodies for the chord modulations, everything. It’s easy to forget the level the old geniuses were on until you re-listen.