April 13, 2008 at 12:58 AM
I was playing unaccompanied Bach too delicately for my teacher's taste. Then we had the following discussion:"How many children did Bach have?"
"I don't know."
"Twenty one! He was all man!!"
My Bach is so much better now.
First, IIRC only 7 of Bach's children survived childhood, infant/child mortality in those days was extremely high. Second, having a handful of adult children was the only available insurance for being looked after at old age in those days, unless you were wealthy.
If you compare Bach with his contemporaries he wasn't any more testosterone driven than any other family man of his day.
Wie bitte??
It's clear that the point was made rheotorically by Sydnee's teacher and that it benefitted her Bach interpretation. To carry on about the the accuracy of Bach's testosterone is shooting a very large arrow in entirely the opposite direction of the target.
Now on the other hand, Jim's reading of the post is, ummm, ahhh, in character. :)
Neil
"Play your Bach with a fuller sound...after all he had twenty kids so he had to be romantic."
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