Re: GG: a poem inspired by GG's 1955 Goldbergs

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Tue, 16 Jun 1998, K. Berry wrote:

> Not to get technical, but the Gb's are actually harmonic variations,
> right, not melodic?

Yes.

> 
>     Bach perspires over the keys,
> 	not getting it right, tries again.
> 		Outside, the summer dust rises
> 
> This has nothing to do with the poem, but is there any knowledge at all
> of Bach's compositional process?  I don't recall seeing anything in the
> Bach Reader or Wolff or anywhere else where Bach talks about this in any
> detail.  I suppose it's pretty much indescribable, anyway.

Actually, there has been considerable research of this by various people. 
Some of the main directions are: (1) compare earlier versions of pieces
with Bach's later revisions of them (many examples); (2) compare Bach's
arrangements/adaptations of his own or other people's music against the
originals (many examples); (3) extrapolate what we know of Bach's
improvisational and continuo techniques, and identify those stylistic
elements in his compositions; (4) examine the manuscripts and note the
cases where certain notes were added later (this can be discerned from
note spacing, differences of ink, note size, etc.).  All these research
techniques can to some extent get us inside Bach's mind as to what he
might have been thinking when he went from initial ideas to refinements. 

These attempts at finding projected reasons behind Bach's compositional
choices can be tremendously useful to performers.  If one can train
oneself to think like Bach, reacting mentally and physically with an
appropriate library of techniques, the musical gestures will emerge in the
performance as natural units of thought, making the compositions clear to
the listener.  If one makes no attempt at this, the performance will blur
over many important details and betray the player's lack of understanding.
A performer's general musicality may be excellent, but without a serious
effort to play as a composer or an improviser there will always be
something lacking in performance.  (Not only will syntactic details be
wrong, but also there will be a general deadly sense of rehashing a
careful practice-room effort rather than making some fresh music in the
moment.  One should know the reason for every note and phrase before
coming to the performance; then, during the performance, project new
thoughts through them as they go along, as if they're being put together
creatively right there on stage.  Isn't that how convincing acting is
done, making a character speak and move from internal motivation?) 

As important as reading other people's research is, it's even more
important to do research, composition, arrangement, and improvisation
oneself if one really wants to think like Bach and play his music well. 
That's of course true of any composer, not only Bach. 

As to how Bach worked on things day to day before writing anything down,
it's true that that's hard information to find!  That's where poetic
imagination comes in. 

Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.45716N+78.94565W
bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/