critique Leopold Augustus Bach

Spike · Feb 17, 2025

Havn't posted anything here in a while, so here's something. Working on a sequence, the life and death of Leopold Augustus Bach. The players here are Sebastian (JS Bach, 33); his wife, Maria Barbara; (34) Maria Barbara's elder sister, part of the household, Friedelena (43); his daughter Catherina (10); the three sons, Friedemann (9), Gottfried (5), and Carl (4); Duke Earnst August of Weimar (30) and Dutchess Wilhelmene, (23); and Leopold, Prince of Anhault Köthen (25). And i needed a midwife, Frau . . . and the first name that came to mind was.. . . Blüchermann. (Blame Mel Brooks, lol.) anyway: four pages.

EDIT: Have re-uploaded this several times, tweaking and tweaking, and this final version (actually, "final version" 16 now) is different from the previous ones in a small but I think important way. I had wanted this birth scene to be quick and light-hearted, but hadn't really acknowledged the seriousness of giving bifth at this time, 1718, always potentially life-threatening for both mother and child. And so, in addition to the little bit of comedy around Sebastian's "schedule" a bit of fear, just a hint. Friedelena, instead of ending her line with "it is time." Says, instead, "It will go well. I know it.," deepening a little, I think, both of their characters, he primarily concerned for Barbara, and she for both parents.

https://www.keepandshare.com/doc30/116290/bb16-pdf-53k?da=y

CelticRambler · Mar 13, 2025

Ooooooooh, don't disrespect the hurdy-gurdy, or you can consider your festival invitation cancelled!

sfoster · Mar 13, 2025

Sorry, but you've got your history all wrong.
They actually had rock music back in medieval europe.

Spike · Mar 14, 2025

sfoster said:
Sorry, but you've got your history all wrong.
They actually had rock music back in medieval europe.

Cool! I learned something, a genre of early music I was completely unaware of.. And, Inspired, I did a little research and discovered one more;

Spike · Mar 14, 2025

CelticRambler said:
Ooooooooh, don't disrespect the hurdy-gurdy, or you can consider your festival invitation cancelled!

Yes, I did make light of the hurdy gurdy--just a little harmless fun, I thought. But no, my invitation to early music day is now in danger of being revoked. Am I being "canceled" by the Hurdists and the Gurdists? Wokism!

But seriously, what a weird and compelling little video tribute to the H-G. (Although i can't help noticing what sounds like a bass guitar. Plus, it would probably be cooler without the crank.

)

CelticRambler · Mar 17, 2025

Spike said:
Plus, it would probably be cooler without the crank.

Ehhhhh .... it wouldn't work without the crank!

That's actually an electric hurdy-gurdy he's playing (still needs the crank, though ...) and the "bass guitar" sound is him plucking the drone strings that would usually be strummed by a wheel (driven by the crank ...) The guy in question regularly uses a playback system as well when he's performing in concert, which he might be doing here too, but a hurdy-gurdy in experienced hands can produce an impressive range of sounds.

If you come to our festival, you'll have all the opportunities you could hope for to try one for yourself! It's one half of an emblematic duo that inspired the novel that inspired the original festival. The other one is ... the bagpipe. No, (probably) not the ones your thinking of, but if you've ever wanted to play them, there'll be a dozen different varieties for you to huff your lungs into too.

Full disclosure: I did that about fifteen years ago because the man on the stand dared me to ... and I bought my second set of (Galician) pipes last year.

Spike · Thursday at 11:03 AM

CelticRambler said:
If you come to our festival, you'll have all the opportunities you could hope for to try one for yourself!

Just remembered. I think I had one when i was a little kid!

Although, as I remember, mine had a picture of Quickdraw McGraw on it--El Kabong!

Anyway, tomorrow the big day? Didn't win the lottery

and so couldn't afford my ticket. But looking forward to Early Music Day updates

CelticRambler · Thursday at 4:32 PM

Alas, you can't count on me for the updates. Am doing a dishonest day's work tomorrow before heading down the road and across the border to treat my ears (and feet) to several hours of this:

Spike · Thursday at 10:18 PM

Way cool.

And, hey, I had to describe Berlin at night, quickly, in 1720, and was able sneak in a hurdy-gurdy. I think, from here on in, I'll try to say "hurdy-gurdy" at least once in everything i write--kind of like my trademark. (And to think, just a few days ago i didn't even know what one was!

)

Sebastian enters the coach, which sets off into the rising sun...

EXT. Berlin - night

...and arrives--Berlin at night. Sebastian's carriage, the weary horses now walking, makes its way down a cobbled thoroughfare alive with light and sound--dancing fires from the lanterns and torches of streetposts, carriages, storefronts; hurdy-gurdy music from a coffeehouse, shouts and laughter from an alehouse.

CelticRambler · Monday at 2:52 PM

Spike said:
(And to think, just a few days ago i didn't even know what one was! )

In the olden days, we used to call that "the magic of the internet"

Fresh from making my own way down cobbled throughfares this weekend, may I suggest a small change to your description: hurdy-gurdy music from a coffeehouse, shouts and laughter from an alehouse, I would write: the harmonious scrapings of a hurdy-gurdy mixing with shouts and laughter from an alehouse.

Not that any hurdy-gurdy could have made itself heard in Basel yesterday evening - 'tis the season to be jolly proud of your marching band, so there were hundreds of them in the streets, competing aggressively for space in every available ear-drum.

Spike · Monday at 5:17 PM

CelticRambler said:
...may I suggest a small change to your description: hurdy-gurdy music from a coffeehouse, shouts and laughter from an alehouse, I would write: the harmonious scrapings of a hurdy-gurdy mixing with shouts and laughter from an alehouse.

Absolutely! Suggest away. These little two or three sentence "action lines" in a script are, for me, fun and not easy to get right. I want to suggest, to a reader, and then to anyone involved in actually filming the thing, the point of the scene: Here it is urban Berlin being way different from Kothen, and even from larger cities we have seen, Like Weimar and Leipzig--deep into the night, still alive with light and sound.

And I think you're right. Mix all the sounds together, The hurdy-gurdy probably better in the tavern then in the coffee house, which i should probably lose.

Or maybe even put it in the street. And "scrapings?" Cool. A good idea, I think, to describe the sound, some way, as a reason for it being there, other than as an in-joke reference to a fun conversation in some on-line forum

. And is there a reason? I don't know, but maybe, yes. We have heard lots of violin and cello, oboe and recorder, organ and harpsichord, but not the harmonious scrapings of this thing with a crank. I think it might delight Sebastian, and maybe I should put him in the street, for a moment, being pointed toward the lodging house, walking down the sidewalk (or whatever), tempted by the ale house--hawker/busker in front with his hurdy gurdy--but wary of the rowdy solders tumbling in and out.

Anyway, as I said, I like working on these little bits of the script, of these being a voice in themselves. They are an opportunity for some nice, precise writing, and when one feels right, I can get some satisfaction. Like this one, from the funeral scene of the Baby Leopold.

"Through Jesus Christ, amen, through Jesus Christ amen,"
. . . for a full ninety seconds: many voices, sung and played, each its own, a double fugue of voice and tone surrounding Sebastian, Friedelena, and each living Bach child, in the beauty, and the mystery, of counterpoint, and of harmony

CelticRambler said:
.Not that any hurdy-gurdy could have made itself heard in Basel yesterday evening - 'tis the season to be jolly proud of your marching band, so there were hundreds of them in the streets, competing aggressively for space in every available ear-drum.

I love marching bands--loved being in a marching band--and this scene sounds like pure joy. And re. Marching bands, I always got a kick out of this one:

And: "competing aggressively for space in every available ear-drum" is a nice little description itself

Anyway, I'll work on "Berlin at night," -- not there, I think, as it is.

CelticRambler · Monday at 7:34 PM

Spike said:
And "scrapings?" Cool. A good idea, I think, to describe the sound, some way, as a reason for it being there, other than as an in-joke reference to a fun conversation in some on-line forum . And is there a reason?

Let this moving image speak the thousand words :lol:

:

It accurately captures the listener's experience when faced with an instrument played by an enthusiastic amateur - of the kind one might find in an alehouse.

I imagine JSB would almost certainly have heard it played like this quite often, as well as in a more polished manner in church on a Sunday morning.

(side note: the is first time I've ever found value in, or use for, a YT short )