GG: Bach, concertos and all that

[Arin Murphy <la_murph@alcor.concordia.ca>]

Hello all!

Wow... great technical discussion on Bach... the scary thing is that I
followed it. Gulp! My thanks to Mark and John, and of course it's
Gould-related.  Open the Tim Page book almost anywhere to see him go on
about the technical aspects of written music. And I had to chortle at
Mark's post that mentioned Bach's work popping up again later in other
pieces - I think I have about four versions of a single theme in different
places, including the Brandenbergs, a violin concerto, a piano concerto
and something else that I can't remember off the top of my head. When your
output was as staggeringly high as JS', I'd be quite frankly surprised if
all of them were 100% original. Imagine - suddenly you remember you
promised the duke of Z's son a violin concerto to perform at a salon - you
sit down and whip off a violin version of a piano concerto you wrote seven
years ago for the earl of T's wife, who lives four countries away and has
jealously guarded the music ever since. 

I'd also like to say, in response to John's mention of Gould pondering the
musical purity of a transposition of a Bach C - piece to F -, that I've
always been taught that certain keys create instinctive emotional
responses in the human experience - C+ is happy and so forth. If you
transposed something, I can't help but think that while the piece of music
might be technically pure, the response it elicits in the listeners or
performers would be different, no? Wouldn't that make it a different piece
of music? (Hmm... case for Bach's reuse of themes - `I put it in a
different key, so it can't be the same music'!)

I also liked Kristen's comparison of a concerto to a dance, or a game -
I've always envisioned the exchange of theme between a soloist and the
emsemble as being like a game of catch, or follow-the-leader. The concerto
form is something I've never really thought about - I do think that the
ensemble never gets the recognition it deserves, though (or sometimes they
muck it up and don't deserve it, so that's all right then). Upon quick
reflection regarding my collection, I can honestly say I don't own many
concertos - I prefer quartets and such. I do like the Brandenbergs a lot
- but the soloists take fair turns within each concerto and I've never
seen them marketed with a famous soloist blazoned across the covers. (It'd
be a tight fit, methinks.)

My tuppence for the week. Carry on!

Arin Murphy
Student, Savoyard,
Bookseller, Cellist-By-Night

	--------------

"It really isn't difficult if you give your whole mind to it."
				-Lady Angela, Act 1
				   Gilbert & Sullivan's `Patience'