It's been a long time since I released a track - the longest in ten years. 2023 has been rough, but swamped though I have been, I never stopped working on music, albeit at a snail's pace.
This track was supposed to be a simple little jam. In fact, it wasn't supposed to be a release at all. I was just goofing around, trying out some new music toys/tools, and using a known piano piece to do it. But eventually, I just sort of got sucked in, and used it as practice for transitioning segments in music (since the instrumentation shifts dramatically every 20-seconds-or-so).
Bach's Prelude I in C Major is one of the most elegantly simple, (and chordally complex) pieces ever written. It's mathematically perfect in every conceivable way. That's why a recording of it was included on NASA's Voyager deep space probe, along with other documentation of monumental artistic achievements of the human race.
And here I am, of course, turning a delicate, beautiful piece of music into an explosion of special effects, and bizarre funkjazz. Purists will hate this, I'm sure, but for me, it was an earnest exploration into all that Bach's chord changes had to offer. Most of all, this was my love letter to pianos and other keyboard instruments. Since Bach wrote this piece as part of "The Well Tempered Clavier" - a series of preludes and fugues designed to explore what keyboard instruments could do, (and to provide students a learning experience), I feel as though I have kept true to the joyous spirit of the Prelude in C, even if I blasphemed the Hell out of it.
What do you think?
WHAT EXACTLY DID I DESECRATE?
Listen to the original. It's sublime, and it's only two minutes long: This is a recording of the mad genius, Glenn Gould, performing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xglOaDKKUI
released August 2, 2023
Prelude I in C Major
J.S. Bach
Well Tempered Clavier (1722)
BWV 846