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Bachs Badinerie

Hi people. I have been doing an exhaustive search for Bach's Badinerie on the net as a MIDI file. Certainly, I have found loads of versions, others good, others bad. However they all suffer a fundamental flaw; they lack the introductory moderato part before going into the allegro melody, we all are so familiar with. It is strange, since all the CDs I have listened to and my guitarist's guitar scores have the moderato part. If anyone has a MIDI inclusive of the moderato part, I would be very grateful if you could forward it to me or tell me where to find it.

Re: Bachs Badinerie

Reply #1 –
Sterghios,

"Badinerie" is just another descriptive form, rather than
the title of a specific piece

I'm guessing that the Badinerie you refer to is the
finale from the J.S. BACH Orchestral Suite #2 in B Minor,
BWV 1067.

That would mean that the "introductory moderato part" is
most likely the Minuet (previous movement) from the same suite?

A quick search found several MIDI versions at
http://www.prs.net/bach.html including the complete Suite by P.&B.Párkányi. I downloaded movements 6 (Minuet) and 7 (Badinerie) and loaded them into Noteworthy. Without my
score I can't be certain, but they look complete with all
parts present and correct. The MIDI is clean, with no
cross staves and only a few weird note lengths (for the
grace notes) using a straight default import into
Noteworthy. The ornaments sound correct but might need
adjusting for a clearer printed score.

While you're there, why not download the entire suite and
hear it in the context that Bach intended?

Re: Bachs Badinerie

Reply #2 –
John,

Thanks for the lead. I apologise for the misuse of the term but I lack in-depth knowledge of the various terms, as I am not a proffessional musician, rather a hobbyist (I hate this particular term too, but, lets face it, I am) that slowly learns on his own amongst being engrossed in research science!

I will follow your suggestion about listening the whole suite, yet I bet it is nothing on MIDI as compared to an orchestra playing it. Strange, why do people that organise those Bach collections or "Summer Classics" and stuff like that put only excerpts and not the whole thing? I know they are really big, yet as you suggest, the audience miss out on the beauty of the whole story.

S

Re: Bachs Badinerie

Reply #3 –
Sterghios,

>Strange, why do people that organise those Bach
> collections or "Summer Classics" and stuff like that
> put only excerpts and not the whole thing? I know they
> are really big, yet as you suggest, the audience miss
> out on the beauty of the whole story.

Interesting point. I think the answer is because that's
what sells. People only want to hear the bits they know,
so that's all anyone plays, so that's all people know etc..
I self fulfilling cycle that winds us into smaller and
smaller exerpts, perhaps for shorter and shorter attention
spans.

I had a sudden "realisation" recently that most of the
music my concert band plays now is "medlies of popular
hits". When I first started playing in bands they
certainly existed, but they were relatively rare. Now they
seem to dominate.

Now, I don't want to go all purist and insist that if
you're going to listen to a Beethoven symphony then it must
be the COMPLETE symphony (with all repeats, at Beethoven's
tempo markings, no matter how ludicrous, and played only on
"authentic" instruments played in an "authentic" style).
Far from it, but I worry that by only concentrating on
the popular bits, people miss out on so much!

Re: Bachs Badinerie

Reply #4 –
John,

You are quite right. I think it all really started with that "hit" collection called "Hooked on Classics" back in the 80's. At least that is when I noticed it.

It is nice though to see that people far from this genre of music have come closer to it by this fragmentation of the compositions. I happen to be more of a rocker than a classical music fan though I have started to listen increasingly more and more to classical music. What that made me realise was that more and more of what are known as underground metal bands (those groups of two to six (or sometimes sixteen!) teenagers that want badly to play non-mainstream/pop/recored-label-favouurite music) that I follow religiously as quite a few of them are very competent and imaginative musicians, are starting to make covers of excerpts of classical compositions, or even better, marrying the two genres together.

You probably think, oh my God, Sacrilege! But, I assure you, it is very pleasant actually and very original. Should this intrigue you as a concept, try to find CDs from bands like HAGGARD (a hungarian 15-member band with strings, harps, harp, brass, distorted guitars, base and drums), PROMETHEAN (room style music with distorted guitars, drums, string section and a flute - get their first CD), THERION (operetic metal - get the Theli CD or the next one), SEPTIC FLESH (operetic metal), etc. etc.

Of all, I suggest Promethean. I suggest you have a good look, since they are signed to some conspicuous european label that I cannot even remember its' name. Alternatively, I can make a few MP3s and send them to you.

S

Re: Bachs Badinerie

Reply #5 –
I think Bach was bery cool.