Help me identify this melody?

[Scott Good]

The main point from me about the Bach reference is that it is very likely, with this fugue clearly in the Stile Antico, that he was borrowing material. And a good chance it came from Palestrina.

WTC is littered with references.

So, perhaps trying to work backwards - see if any theorist/historian has uncovered the link. My quick search had no results, but if someone can read german, I bet sources could be found in that language.

[marquis66]

Originally Posted by Scott Good

The main point from me about the Bach reference is that it is very likely, with this fugue clearly in the Stile Antico, that he was borrowing material. And a good chance it came from Palestrina.

Ah... Yeah, have to agree with you there.

Originally Posted by Scott Good

So, perhaps trying to work backwards - see if any theorist/historian has uncovered the link. My quick search had no results, but if someone can read german, I bet sources could be found in that language.

I checked JStor and Academic Search Premier, nothing popped up.

[Mischa]

So, perhaps trying to work backwards - see if any theorist/historian has uncovered the link. My quick search had no results, but if someone can read german, I bet sources could be found in that language.

I wanted to post BWV 853 a couple of days before, but you were faster. It's by a long way my favorite prelude/fugue from the WTC, mostly though because of the majestic preludio, such a fantastic movement! How many Baroque pieces in E-flat Minor are there?

YouTube- J. S. Bach - Prelude in E-flat Minor and Fugue in D-sharp Minor...

Anyway - I searched for quite a while to find any connections between the fugue and the mystery melody, I read the paragraphs about it in the Dürr, downloaded two studies about the fugue and its architecture, but, alas: there's no connection mentioned. It seems to be pure Bach.

[le_sacre]

Yes, thanks, sorry I didn't fully grasp the intent of the WTC suggestions. If memory serves, baroque-era composers had different ideas about "plagiarism" than we do, so Bach's particular melodic inspirations may never have been recorded, I suppose.

I was actually particularly interested in this statement from the end of the fugue, which matches the sequential characteristic of the melody I remember, as well as the on-the-beat, four-note downward cascade motive:



The more I think about it, though, the more it seems that the little bit I recall of the mystery piece is not thematic material, but rather an ornamented little episode, and thus unlikely to have been taken up as a subject later out of direct inspiration. I think it's just a nicely shaped line that's bound to crop up more than once in millennium.

[le_sacre]

Originally Posted by Mischa

Anyway - I searched for quite a while to find any connections between the fugue and the mystery melody, I read the paragraphs about it in the Dürr, downloaded two studies about the fugue and its architecture, but, alas: there's no connection mentioned. It seems to be pure Bach.

(p.s. thanks for going the extra miles, Mischa and everyone else! totally above and beyond.)

(p.p.s. won't i be embarrassed now when it turns out to have been from the lord of the rings soundtrack or something!)

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by le_sacre

(p.p.s. won't i be embarrassed now when it turns out to have been from the lord of the rings soundtrack or something!)

I'd give odds on:

TJ Hooker
Rawhide
Terry and June
The Persuaders





Or possibly Jason King

[le_sacre]

Eureka!

It's from John Browne's "Jesu mercy, how may this be?", from volume 2 of the Eton Choirbook, circa 1490. It's on the first album of renaissance music I ever owned, a gift from my grandmother:

Music for a Tudor Christmas
Music for a Tudor Christmas

with the Cambridge Taverner Choir.

The offending earworm is included in this clip:

Browne.jesu.mercy.mp3