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RE: Johann Sebastian Bach, Prelude and Fugue (BWV 553) | Hive Open Mic Week 15

in Hive Open Mic4 years ago

Oh yay, you're back! What a treat hearing from you today. I like the way you show the notation as you're playing it–I think it's a good way to get to know standard notation, by seeing it and hearing it at the same time. Always appreciate a learning opportunity, thanks.

And thank you for your history here. I was just chatting about the fact that some individual artists are actually artist collectives (many artists), who selflessly add their works to a shared pot, under a shared name. It's been suggested that some of Shakespeare's works are this way–written by others under his name. I wonder if this is why people used to attribute this piece to Bach?

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I think, in this case, it's more mundane than that. People don't like anonymous compositions and people do like compositions by a well known name. That's why, I think, a lot of compositions were attributed to Bach: it just sells better.
On the positive side: probably a lot of these pieces attributed to Bach survived in manuscripts till the present day, precisely because they were attributed to Bach. As anonymus compositions or with some unknown name attached to them they could easily have been lost somewhere in the past 300 years.

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Thanks for your insights. I'm grateful for your support of Hive Open Mic over the weeks. Thank you very much.