The Bach Odyssey

April 10, 2024, 6:54 PM · The Bach Odyssey
It is a truism to note that the Sonata and Partitas of Bach are at the core of what being a violinist means. They in turn frustrate, inform, inspire and profoundly touch us as human beings. I can easily imagine Bach, now on the astral plane, turning to Anna and saying with a chuckle “Seht, wie ich ihre Köpfe durcheinandergebracht habe!” (My skanky version of ‘Hah! I messed up their heads good and proper!’)
This being the case, the S+Ps are used to judge violinists in all manner of situations. The first for me was back in the dark ages when I had to graduate from RCM. I had lost count of the number of Chaconnes I had heard over those four years so I opted to play the Largo and Allegro Assai from the C major sonata, just to give myself and everyone else a break!
In those days historical practice was just beginning to crawl out of the woodwork. Wanda Landowska was still some kind of benchmark I think… Music institutes were beginning to hire period performers for the first time and what they were proposing did not always receive a friendly welcome. My teacher at the time complained, rather grumpily for him, ‘I have spent years polishing my vibrato and now you are asking me not to use it?’ Only the more nerdy violinists started exploring this nutty new approach and it wasn’t entirely an urban legend that if your teacher spotted a baroque bow in your case you might well be kicked out of class. It was widely argued at that time that the bowing styles were not compatible and that a baroque bow would ruin your bow arm. Haven’t seen much documented evidence of that to date though.
I was pretty much the same as everyone else and just tried to play a regular ‘best possible sound/musical phrasing’ style, which is not actually a horrible thing, I hasten to add. I discovered the Henryk Szeryng edition and pretty much followed the bowings and fingerings since our hands are somewhat similar. I have, and still do advise students to study this edition because the bowings in particular are a lesson in modern violin playing. (It may well be better to start with a blank slate and discuss Ss’ choices, but that is a whole new discussion). The left hand is somewhat more controversial, being based on the idea the each string represents one section of a chorus and depending what the vocal line is we should try to play on that string. This has the effect of often making the S+Ps harder than they first appear. The entry level ‘Gigue’ for example, is substantially harder if you follow Szeryng’s fingerings. I did continue to use a lot of his fingerings over the years simply because they are so violinistic and intelligent. A thoughtful artist’s romantic (?) Bach, if you like.
In particular, I thought his fingerings for the Largo were not only super efficient, but made terrific use of string colour. I was completely at home with going up the a string to 3rd position for the first f natural instead of going over to the e. However, even I couldn’t help noticing over the years that virtually all the Ss who came to me from other teachers crossed over and stayed in lower positions in general. In the end though,I was quite happy to leave them be and just enjoy myself. People should play how they want to, right?
In more recent years my outlook on this Largo and Bach in general has shifted. This is not so much a result of focusing on the individual movement, but rather a shift created by a more global, programmatic feeling about what I think is the core of the S+Ps. My interpretation of this core, which begins at the Chaconne, may well be wildly inaccurate and I would never inflict it on my Ss, but it’s my story and I’m sticking with it! (For now).
The Chaconne is the agonizing torment that Bach experienced as a result of the loss of his beloved Anna. It’s not rational or useful. Basically a kind of hair pulling appeal to the sky ‘Why me? Why her?’ It can’t be consoled and the calm section at the end is not a cessation of pain, just a sudden waking up one day and the mind and spirit saying ‘we just can’t do this anymore.’ It is the point where you either kill yourself or are able to drag one foot after another in some kind of orderly way from an external perspective. Then comes the C major fugue. Here I think, Bach is struggling with existential questions. ‘If God really exists why did he take away my loved one and tear apart my soul? Have I not been faithful? Do I really believe in you?’ The spiritual battle swings back and forth. It is only in the Largo that the logos or spiritual nature of our being is finally established and genuine inner peace is realized. Such a simple, relatively small movement, and yet it is in some ways the pinnacle of this massive central area of the S+Ps.
The problem for me now is that I can’t play it as I have always liked to because that is not its purpose for me. It is not primarily about glorious sounds and trying to move people. As an expression of nirvana of spiritual quietude it is about the existence/non existence, ebb and flow of time. The violinist musician in us must, of course, find the long lines of spiritual song, almost as though one is in a forest or by a waterfall singing something from somewhere as a kind of prayer. However, we then need to be so free of ego that that inherent rhythm of the universe as it feeds through us dictates the every changing flow of time within the phrases.
To find this kind of performance is incredibly hard. It means letting go of so much, not just as a violinist , but as a person. For everyone it is a different journey, but it is life’s journey.
What is the first step on your life journey depends on each individual. I guess I’m going to start by playing f on the e string!

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The Bach Odyssey

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