I heard that the rests were there because normally this piece was played in places with a lot of reverberance and it was a way to differentiate the bass among the bars. It's just a theory but I found it interesting, me personally I like the bass to ring for the whole bar as much as possible, thanks for the video!

@iwattguitar

4 ай бұрын

Interesting! In any case, even with the rests, the bass is still, functionally, a 'sustained' D for three bars. In this, it bears a resemblance to the openings of both the St Matthew and St John Passions.

Very interesting and useful. Do you analyse the music harmonically away from the guitar before playing a new piece?

@iwattguitar

4 ай бұрын

Thank you! To some extent, but harmony is fundamentally a thing that needs to be heard so you have to be able to "hear" accurately in your head what you are reading; whilst it is possible to see in the music where the chords function as dissonance etc, the key is to hear it.

A thoughtful video Ian which I can’t argue with. The duration of the bass is a curious question. Why 2 quavers and not 3? I suspect Jonathan Leathwood has considered this ref Bach, but I can’t remember his point!!

@iwattguitar

4 ай бұрын

Thank you Colin! Yes, the bass is curious. When it is 'walking' (the passages with a bass note on every beat), I think it makes sense, giving it a bounce - of 'step' - which then gives the music momentum. I have some more ideas on this, however, and will put them in a future video. Thanks for commenting!