Exposition

The Unplayable Notes of JS Bach (2015)

Oonagh Lee
no media files associated
open exposition

About this exposition

Today there is little doubt that the oboe was one of Bach's most favoured instruments, and that it was an instrument with which he was extremely familiar. Yet, in spite of this, Bach composed numerous works which includes notes that are not playable on the model of oboe that we know were used during his lifetime. Why did Bach write notes that are generally regarded today as unplayable, or perhaps rather ‘unperformable’ due to the quality of both sound and intonation when produced on a contemporary copy of a historical instrument? This is a problem which has been somewhat confined to the footnotes of Bach scholarship but it nonetheless poses very important and relevant questions for the historical oboist, and in fact potentially for the Bach musician and scholar at large.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsnotes, unplayability, historical instrument, Johann Sebastian Bach
date01/01/2015
published28/05/2015
last modified28/05/2015
statuspublished
share statusprivate
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/78331/137060
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/koncon.78331
published inKC Research Portal
portal issue1. Master Research Projects


Copyrights

nameThe unplayable notes of JS Bach last
copyrightOonagh Lee
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespdf

Comments are only available for registered users.