Teaching the history and future of Bach interpretation at Codarts (concept)
As this text is all about quality of sound, the reader is kindly requested to listen to the music examples with good loudspeakers or good earphones, not with low quality headphones or loudspeakers of, for instance, a tablet, laptop or smartphone.
It will be no surprise that students tend to appreciate the new viewpoint of wildness more than The Art of Doing Nothing. Actually, I am thinking about how to use this positive energy in the best way. First of all, I do not expect students to follow my path from Bach to Messiaen and Coltrane; it is far too personal. However, I shall let them think about titles with which Bach explicitly referred to dance, such as Allemande; Courante; Sarabande; Gavotte; Air; Minuet and Gigue. In addition, this statement by Cecil Taylor:
"Well, you know, I think Western musicians, fine art musicians, what they call fine art musicians--European fine art--they're the only ones who don't dance. Every other--of course these certain stupid Americans--but you'll find in all other cultures, like third world cultures, musicians dance. What they don't understand is when you--when you are playing, whether you know it or not, you're dancing. I always got great enjoyment watching great musicians dance when they play. I mean, to watch Elvin Jones or Art Blakey. Horace Silver, Ellington had a way--and Billie Holiday--those movements. Or Betty Carter."
My second conclusion will be that the course cannot be carried by a single person; there should be a team of teachers. In this team different points of view should represent the variety of Bach interpretation over the years, decades and even centuries. Ideally, all instruments and the voice should be covered, including instruments that Bach did not know. Also the way jazz and pop musicians look at Bach. At the end of the course, being well informed, the student will give his or her own live interpretation of a piece by Bach regarding the future, documented in a digital environment (possibly related to Jaco van den Dool's lectorate Blended learning).
Thirdly, the project will probably also be too big to be defined from beginning to end already. However, I have a clear idea about how to start: the well-known issue of expressions/moods associated with tonalities; in addition how to relate this to the body language of performing. One of the above mentioned video's matches this aspect:
The key of c minor is an interesting issue regarding tendencies in historically informed performance practice and other traditions, which are more based on the heritage of the 19th century. Depending on background, students and teachers may find depth and nobleness in a certain performance misinterpreted and moving towards pompousness, while vice versa a deliberately light and transparent interpretation may sound thin and meaningless to others. Or: suppose a student wants to adapt body language (and possibly clothes) to (supposed?) needs of contemporary visual media. What would appear to be a grotesque distortion of the quality of c minor to some may be regarded as a valuable tool for modern communication by others. The idea is to inform students as much as possible and let them make their own choice at the end.
Knowing about moods associated with tonalities as described in 18th century sources will only be the first level of information. With all respect to their authors we have to realise that they were basically meant for serious, well-to-do amateurs, not for professionals, let alone that they could match the richness of Bach's universum. Besides, authors from the 18th century did not have the habit of describing emotions in detail, contrary to art and literature from the 19th century up to the present. However, this does not mean that musicians in the 18th century where unaware of the broad spectrum of human emotions. Therefore, it is recommendable not only to know about the basic moods of the tonalities, but also to refine them depending on the piece. This is where imagination can be very helpful, for instance:
Intimate, quiet expectation in a chorale for the Advent: (under construction)
(to be continued)
Meanwhile I started to publish instructional organ video's on YouTube that demonstrate a profound and healthy way of practising: first left hand, right hand and pedal separately, then left with pedal, right with pedal, left and right together and finally all three together. This is much in line with my former art of playing with relaxed precision, but with more reference to dance and body language than before. The lessons are also meant to counterbalance the aspect of wildness, because that only works when supported by good technique.
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