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Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, organ

Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, organ

smalin
3 HN recommenders · discussed 2010–2026
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About this video

Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on organ, shown with a Music Animation Machine bar-graph score instead of traditional notation.

Why it appears in the archive

Recommended as a music visualization that makes the structure easier to follow than sheet music.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

boredguy8 · 2010-02 · rec

Personally, I love the "Music Animation Machine" visualizations, especially of Bach. Toccata and Fugue [VIDEO] "Little" Fugue [LINK] Also enjoyable: Debussy's Clair de lune [LINK]

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avodonosov · 2015-05 · rec

Cool, I like it. BTW, cool music visualization: [VIDEO] (you can't play there, but it helps o perceive music better)

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quercusa · 2021-09 · rec

For those who are not up to reading music at Bach's level, Stephen Malinowski's Musical Animation videos are eye-opening, e.g., from the Musical Offering mentioned in the article: [LINK] Toccata and Fugue in Dmin: [VIDEO] I was directed to Malinowski's work by Edward Tufte (you may be able to figure out why) and feel I should pass it on.

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Fluorescence · 2026-08 · reference

I have never been able to follow a score despite music lessons and playing in an orchestra (I faked it). I find such a striking difference between notation that just swims in front of my eyes: [LINK] And a bar graph which I can hear when muted: [VIDEO] I have a similar issue with algebraic notation, the signifier and signified never connects. So much misery spending hours with a mass of punctuated greek in a cs paper to discover it describes a triangle. The decryption is not even sticky, I look away for a second and it immediately re-encrypts back to soup. I don't understand why since programming languages having always felt natural and something I learned as a pre-teen just by being left alone with a BBC micro and a "type in a game" book.

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