A Different Kind of Authenticity

A Different Kind Of Authenticity

The interpretation of compositions by J.S. Bach is a lifelong learning project for many musicians: one can always improve. From when I was a student (1977-1986), I based my ideal of playing the organ on observations on Bach's organ playing made by contemporaries of his. These observations all point in the same direction: that Bach was able to achieve a maximum of expression with a minimum of movements of hands and feet. Achieving more by doing less became a guideline for my daily practice, supported by a term which at the time was currently used in the historically informed music practice: “vernehmendes Hören”, which translates as “observational listening”.  Evidently, my Bach interpretation has been largely influenced by the early music movement, but actually I am looking for Bach performances beyond the historically informed performance debate. My point of view is based on the past but heads for the future, by relating to other music traditions on the one hand and my own improvisations and compositions on the other. Regarding these other traditions, I intend to let organ pipes sound like, for instance, not only Marcel Ponseele's oboe, but also Hariprasad Chaurasia's bansuri, with a similar natural breathing, fluency and detailed expression. Playing Bach with the technique that I use for improvising and performing my compositions brings me nearer to the goal.  I use to practise on a "Hauptwerk"-console with the digitalised sound of historical instruments in Arlesheim and Tholen. It has a very precise and sensitive action and allows for a great refinement of toucher. In this respect, it may be compared to the clavichord, the home instruments of many 18th century organists, including Bach himself.  As for authenticity, we simply have to admit that we do not know how Bach's music sounded in the days when it was created. No one can pretend to know the truth and in this respect a certain modesty is needed. Moreover, there is not one single truth as there is also not one meaning to the word authenticity. Bach's music crosses so many borders that, for instance, a tune of his whistled by an inhabitant of a South American village who heard it on his mobile phone may have authenticity and truth in its own right. In line with the historically informed music practice I have been searching for a maximum of objectivity in my Bach interpretation in the past forty years. Unfortunately however, with myself and others, I saw this historically informed practice too often end up in a fruitless debate on what is supposedly right or wrong. Developing my own music and hereby relating to other music traditions stimulated me to make a next step and transform objectivity into subjectivity. Contrary to supposedly right or wrong my focus now lies on what feels good.  An example of relating Bach's music to non-Western music and my own improvisations and compositions is Birds, Drums and Signals ( part of The Enchanted Desert). It is based on improvisations on a rhythmical pattern with a 14/16 time signature. These improvisations were originally meant as exercises to develop right and left hand independence and gradually crystallised into a composition. During this process I was inspired by the childlike, sincere joy of African musicians I played with as an organist of the Scots International Church in Rotterdam from 1998 till 2000. At the premiere of The Enchanted Desert (30th June, 2016), I succeeded in applying this kind of joy to the performance of Birds, Drums and Signals. It was an inspiring experience that served to create a breakthrough in my Bach interpretation; from then on I clearly decided to play his trio sonatas and other similar works with the same naive joy as Birds, Drums and Signals.  N.B. this decision implies activity on the level of craftsmanship, artistry and spirituality. These are levels that I discern regarding my music practice in general. They may be further investigated in a possible artistic doctoral research, in which the "new" way of playing the six sonatas is compared to the "old" way, as published on YouTube between   September 2013 and August 2014. Besides technical skills acquired over the years, this joy is essential to obtain the seemingly effortless grace that is so often associated with 18th century music of, for instance, Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn and Mozart. in its turn this grace relates to what I used to call the art of doing nothing in 2003 and later referred to as the art of playing with relaxed precision.  In short: Playing with African musicians → my own music (Birds, Drums and Signals) → Bach sonatas  The first piece to play in the new manner was the third movement of the sonata in d minor: Aspects of craftsmanship that are already demonstrated in the old version are:   - keeping the fingers as much as possible in contact with the keys of the keyboard for optimum control of toucher -  Abbreviations "Arlesheim" : recorded with the digitalized sound of the Silbermann-organ in Arlesheim (1761) "Tholen" : recorded with the digitalized sound of the Van Dam-organ in Tholen (1832) Noordwolde: played at the Freytag-organ in Noordwolde (1803)