The Chaconne is arguably the greatest piece of music ever composed, and for us musicians, something of a Mount Everest both to understand and especially to execute. Bach composed this for the violin in loving memory of his first wife Maria, and in thanks for the gift of life that was his second wife Anna- the woman who made Bach the man we still admire today.
It wasn't until my senior year at the Curtis Institute that I learned this piece and I was extremely fortunate to study it with Mr. Aldwell. Edward Aldwell, aka the Bach Authority, was a beautiful soul, a brilliant mind, incredible pianist and one of the biggest influences in my development. He wrote the textbook on Harmony & Voice Leading used at major conservatories and universities including Juilliard & Curtis where he taught.
He was more than a theory teacher to me. He changed my relationship with music. Instead of dreading practicing Bach, he taught me to get into Bach's head. Raising my awareness to Bach's thinking made Johann Sebastian my friend. This is the gift Mr. Aldwell gave me.
He also told me that transcribing Bach's music is not blasphemy (as it was commonly thought in the 1990's and early 2000's when I was at school). In fact, Bach reworked his own compositions all the time; awareness of the fact that Bach heard music in his head as an organ shifts priorities in realizing his music - a glimpse of what it sounded like in his mind when he composed it.
Mr. Aldwell’s method of teaching was so generous and custom tailored to us. With me, he suggested transcribing the Chaconne together rather than repeating traditional theory exercises,. What a way to inspire a 16 year old kid obsessed with the cello - he saw right past barriers of age, dynamics between teacher and student, and went straight to the part where I could experience it for myself. Really hard not to learn at this point!
This leads to our next topic of performance practice. I don't necessarily play Baroque in the sense that I don't tune down or use gut strings. Instead, I tried to do what Mr. Aldwell taught me to do: "follow the blueprint". It is arguably more difficult to play this work without taking lots of time, and it is already much more difficult to play this work on cello, so I thought I'd practice an extra decade or so to actually execute it intentionally, rather than follow what's on recordings. It is more beautiful when one resists rushing or slowing down so the rhythmic integrity of the music is upheld and the true magic of Bach's flow is felt - the result is that the melody becomes the harmony, especially in apt acoustics.
Why ballet? My wife is one of the most beautiful ballerinas in the world today. In this Covid lockdown, I am lucky to have her by my side and get to live this music with her. As much as I love this music, her impact on my life somehow makes the music itself mean more. Certainly when we listen to it, we imagine and feel all kinds of things that take us all sort of places and times. The ballet is here not to compete with the music, but simply because I found Julia's movements beautiful and wanted to share it with you. Julia and I talk about art all day, and ballet may not be for everybody, but Bach is! For us, it's the simple act of sharing, like chef's been in the kitchen all day and can't wait for friends to try whats cookin! Hope you can enjoy it positively - especially my video directing, I never got the extra decade to practice that!!!
The AQI is over 200 in SF at the moment, orange sky. And as the world feels like it's burning down around us, Julia and I feel grateful to have our art to lean on everyday. We've been working on this for awhile for our friend Dr. Anon, and while we've all experienced a lot of loss this year, he had a particularly rough go of it- meanwhile running around helping everyone else. This is our way of saying thank you, Dr. Anon! We are grateful for your inspiring us daily, being on the ground saving lives daily, and for suggesting that we share this online with all our friends - in this time when sharing anything is becoming increasingly difficult!!! ❤️🤍💙
Special thanks to all our friends who helped in the creation of this video (especially Kevin, John, Stefan, Sheridan, thank you!!!). Please remember our friends at beautiful St. Ignatius and consider supporting all the wonderful work they do (www.classy.org/give/236372/#!...) to promote inclusion and love for all.
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10 сен 2020
