The Ink that Bach used

I’ve never seen a close examination of Bach’s manuscripts before. I sympathize with his scarcity of materials we take for granted.

I've always considered Bach's manuscripts as works of art. Then you hear the incredible music.... .

You tell such wonderful stories through your paleographical analysis of Bach's scores. Thank you for breathing new life into these often battered pages!

I attended a lecture by Robert Levin once. In the lecture, Levin spoke of how he studied the color of ink in Mozart's scores. From this, he was able to deduce that Mozart wrote three piano concertos at the same time.

It's an amazing insight that bach composes the top voice first, at least in some cases. He might not have been as figured bass oriented as we think. The foundation sometimes is the melody

Sehr geehrter Herr Witte, Ihre höchst interessanten Beiträge rund um das Schaffen Bachs sind nicht nur außerordentlich informativ, sondern spannend wie ein Thriller. Ich hoffe, Sie bekommen die verdiente Anerkennung und sage siebenstellige Zugriffszahlen voraus ;) Herzlichen Dank für Ihre überaus wertvolle Arbeit!

This is extraordinary. My house is full of Bach's music - who's house isn't? I am also an Artist/illustrator and have recently begun making my own ink. So, when a video about the ink Bach used appears . . . ! This was a wonderful way to begin my day. ❤️ Best wishes from Vermont 🍁

Спасибо) Очень интересно, я много всего узнал.

This is so cool. I love to copy scores. It relaxes me.

What a wonderfully interesting/educational video, providing yet another level of enjoyment of the works of the great master. Thank you for sharing this with us.

this makes me feel a lot better about the quality and condition of my writing and written compositions! 😆

This is the second of these programs I have watched. Both were fascinating. It is seriously valuable work and I am glad the decision was made to share it. You actually get a sense of Bach’s physical presence. Superb.

What a wonderful presentation!

Absolutely amazing, beautiful master piece work, thank you for your effort!

i learned Bachs sonata no. 1 for solo violin in high school, and then 20 yrs later, i wrote out the score based on the autograph manuscript. it revealed so much in the score I didnt appreciate in the engraved version. takes time but highly recommend the exercise! your video takes this to another dimension

The dotted note of a higher value such as a dotted 1/8th followed by a 16th was understood from French harpsichord music to be played as a prolonged double dotted 1/8th or longer and the 1/16th note shortened. The instance of the 16th note instead of 1/8 not cited was understood as having a preceding 1/16 note rest. I might point other 17th-18th century performance practices, short hand as to writing an ornament in a motive which in reoccurring occurrence also understood to be played, or adding a trill in an ending cadence although not written was obligatory in performance.

the brief excerpts really enhance this wonderful video, thanks

Absolutely interesting! Please keep these coming.

Another brilliant video! Thank you for making these.

This is fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing!