J.S. Bach's Keyboard Technique: A Historical Introduction

by Quentin Faulkner

Discussion of various aspects of Bach's keyboard techniques with special emphasis on fingering.

78 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1984

Reviews

[renping · Rating 5 out of 5]

sweet concise little book. @ the book shop (Judd's, in london😍) and cannot decide whether or not to drop 6.50 on it, so I read through it. To my chagrin, I find that it's almost entirely word for word the way that I was told to play bach by he who shall remain unnamed here :/ (i.e. ordinary touch, NO substitutions👎 NO heel, 3434 ascending & 3232 descending RH, 2121 ascending 2323 desc. LH, etc) Feeling humbled🙂💜

Some exceptions are:
-discouraging use of 1st and 5th finger in accidentals... (Actually this just never came up in any of my pieces so no real conflict there. All love😛)
- bachs apparent "quiet" technique, where he just didn't appear move his hand a lot..very small movements (confused bc trills/ornaments.. using wrist is like a lot of visible movement but idk how else to get good control)
- Fingering: pivots & crossings. Still a little unclear on this and the thumb stuff threw me off, but ig I was under the impression that someone would hang a scarlet letter on me if I did crossings and it's just not that big of a deal. Need to re-read or discuss or visual aid or something. I feel like i still don't know when I am supposed to do that...

Also some helpful stuff on bach's release technique (sort of sliding back with the finger?? seems to keep notes legatoish too), and interesting to hear more about technique contemporary to him in relation to the construction of those mech action organs (shape of pedals, as well as the key action itself 🤝 baroque ordinary touch technique where you do "jump" note to note a bit.. to put it v roughly) This was a Good Read !! After writing this I decided to not buy it. But that is because I dropped too much money on 18th cent keyboard manuals this week😉 #iwasborninthewronggeneration etc

[Tim Lindeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of primary writings concerning the keyboard technique of J.S. Bach with commentary. The book describes how Bach performed the piano and organ, including the various fingerings and articulation.

A nice quote from the conclusion: "For the performer, mastery of [Bach's] technique is not a matter of forgetting modern technique, but only of enlarging it by adding to it earlier fingering practices as well as those practices peculiar to J. S. Bach himself."