{"id":86,"date":"2015-02-05T19:15:33","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T19:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawrencedavis.org\/?p=86"},"modified":"2015-02-14T16:09:39","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T16:09:39","slug":"playing-bach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/2015\/02\/playing-bach\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing Bach"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Originally published by Lawrence Davis on January 2, 2012]<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Brandenburg\"The Bloomingdale Chamber Orchestra has been rehearsing the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and we are having a tough time with it.\u00a0 Modern orchestras don\u2019t do as much Bach as they do other composers.\u00a0 Bach\u2019s music wasn\u2019t really written for the modern orchestra.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t quite fit.\u00a0 The Fifth Brandenburg, for example, has no second violin part. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What it does have is a lot of notes.\u00a0 In Baroque music, the flow of a piece is governed by the musical line.\u00a0 A line is a self-propelled musical entity, usually based on one or two short musical segments called motives which are transformed during the course of the piece.\u00a0 Every line has its own kinetic energy which ebbs and flows, creating the expressive potential of the line.\u00a0 The interaction of two or more lines is what creates the tension and release that both propel the piece forward and which lead to the overall drama in a piece of Baroque music.\u00a0 The interaction creates a kind of polarity\u2014equal and opposite forces trying to unite.\u00a0 The whole process is called fortspinnung in German\u2014spinning forth.\u00a0 Its part of what makes Baroque music seem so restless and energetic.\u00a0 Bach represents the epitome of this kind of Baroque music and the Brandenburg concerti represent some of his very best secular instrumental compositions.<\/p>\n

What Bach\u2019s music doesn\u2019t have much of are rests, which is one of the reasons it\u2019s so challenging.\u00a0 While lines are built of two or three simple motives, \u201cdevelopment\u201d consists mostly of transforming those motives–reshaping them, altering them with accidentals, moving them to new keys, playing them upside down, playing them backward, among other things. It means players need to be aware of the notes every moment they are playing, while at the same time musically shaping the line and being aware of how the line interacts with the other performers.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, I was given a book titled G\u00f6del, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid<\/i> by Douglas Hofstadter.\u00a0 I am not going to pretend I understood much of that book, but what I loved about it was the idea that three magnificent creative thinkers in mathematics, art, and music could be linked through an understanding of thinking and awareness.\u00a0 I love the idea that Bach\u2019s musical lines have energy contained within them, just the the way the sweeping lines of a sculptor like Bernini contain energy, and those lines can uplift those who experience them.<\/p>\n

For the performer, playing Bach is one of music\u2019s extreme sports and one of music\u2019s most completely satisfying experiences.\u00a0 After you have finished performing the piece, you know you have done something special.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Davis<\/p>\n

______________<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It so happens that G\u00f6del, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter is one of my own favorite books — it has had a great influence on me.\u00a0 Though I have far less understanding of Bach’s work than Lawrence did, it would have been rewarding to discuss the book with him.\u00a0 This is the second essay that Lawrence posted on his blog “Reaching In.”\u00a0 It originally appeared at lawrence-davis.blogspot.com. – CHC<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Originally published by Lawrence Davis on January 2, 2012] The Bloomingdale Chamber Orchestra has been rehearsing the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and we are having a tough time with it.\u00a0 Modern orchestras don\u2019t do as much Bach as they do other composers.\u00a0 Bach\u2019s music wasn\u2019t really written for the modern orchestra.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t quite fit.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reaching-in-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}