O no, I am the stupid dumb-ass here - I wrote also b-sharp minor/major for that b-flat minor/major pair in my homepage

Ok, I meant that b-flat minor prelude and fugue. It has 5 flats - for every voice one flat
Just counted - if I am right, b-sharp minor would have 9 sharps, b-sharp major would have 12 sharps or so.

The only excuse I have is that in German the naming is total different:
English<->German
B <-> H
B flat <-> B
D flat <-> Des
C sharp <-> Cis

The advantage of the German naming is that only a German can handle the famous key sequence in a proper way (numerous pieces for that notes were written including from old Bach itself):

B-A-C-H

Interesting maybe, for that c sharp major pair with 7 sharps there seems to be another score, coded with d flat major and 5 flats. That's something every Chopin lover will appreciate, since it is one of Chopin's most used keys, so one is more used to that. If anyone has the fugue coded as d flat major instead c sharp major I really would be interested to get a hint for a source to buy that.

Just as an aside, Chopin is quite fond of modulating into keys that have no proper key signature. Like D# major. You don't write pieces in D# major, because that gives you double sharps in the key signature (not allowed!) but Chopin will modulate into those keys without changing signature.

Bach probably does it too, but I'm not as widely familiar with Bach stuff as I am with Chopin stuff.

Speaking of Bach, why is it still "Bach" on the composer side bar in the main site? It should be "Bach J.S." and "Bach C.P" beneath it.

Putting Bach below his sons, that would you really demand from Chris? I propose instead, putting Bach and Chopin on top of the complete list, and below come the "other" composers, the poor rest. Is also more ergonomic, see the statistics for the most accessed composers.

No no! I meant like this:

Albeniz
Alkan
Bach J.S
Bach C.P (or C.P.E)
Balakirev

etc

I did not imply placing J.S beneath his son, that would be blasphemous

I am certainly not an expert on Bach, but I find playing Bach to be very exciting personally. I never tire of playing his compositions.

Here is the address of my favorite Youtube post. It is Gould practicing apparently in the privacy of his home or studio. At first it seems like he is an insane person, but be sure to watch and listen to the entire post, and I believe you will agree with me that it demonstrates what a genius Gould was. I love it. I even love the dog and birds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB76jxBq ... ed&search=

That is a stttrraaaaange video! What are those birds doing there, anyway? And the dog sure didn’t seem very excited (big yawn). It’s probably used to hearing so much piano music all the time that it’s immune. But yes, that man can sure play!! I’m not sure what to think about all that singing, though. It’s like he can’t play WITHOUT singing. Still, it kind of adds an additional entertainment element - I would think it would be difficult to just sing something like that, let along sing and play. Maybe that’s what is meant by additional voices in fugues?(kidding)

Thanks John, that was interesting. The bird thing cracks me up.

hehe...in case you didn't notice, Monica, he was playing the fugue that I mentioned earlier (from the Sinfonia of the C Minor Partita). It's one of my favorites, and it's nowhere near easy, and it only has two voices. I no longer feel the need to make my own recording, because he interprets it more like I do, and he plays it much better than I could.

The video...

Ha! That is exactly how I practice, with all the humming and the odd "gagh" of frustration and the pacing and singing.

Pete

What a coincidence!

Out of curiousity, I went back to Youtube and looked at the first Glenn Gould video that popped up and it was this one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ag3atJSmgTM
I don't know a thing about partitas, but this was a nice piece. (figures, it's another minor key ) I just came home from a Cheap Trick concert so this relaxed me. And doesn't Gould look a little like Arthur Fonzarelli (the Fonze)from Happy Days?

I'm watching him again right now and noticing his wrists and high fingers. My teacher is trying to get me to have looser wrists like this. He (my teacher) can produce such a nice tone on the piano, and explains that if I dig into the keys more, use more arm weight, wrists that (look like they)float or swim, I could sound better. I'm trying.
What a nice piece, so soothing. Maybe Bach's not so bad afterall.

That is the Partita I am working on this semester.

I was going to say, “Wow, another coincidence,” except I guess it’s not if I would just pay attention to the titles. But here’s one: Star Trek Voyager was on last night.

VGER!

Back to Barenboim...we listened to some of Barenboim's Goldberg Variations in Keyboard Lit today. He's definitely not a purist when it comes to the pedal (as in, he uses it) but I definitely wouldn't say he uses too much. I'm not really intimately familiar with the GV, but I think he did a good job.

stay away from the fugues!