The Sixth Sense

 I recall a specific day as an undergraduate at the Cleveland Institute of Music sitting in theory class on a cold, snowy day.  I was probably tired from working the graveyard shift at Presti’s Bakery, nervous about my upcoming cello lesson in which I had to play Popper 33 from memory, or dreading the inevitable humiliation of singing atonal melodies or improvising chord progressions in front of a classroom of super smart, talented students.

There was a substitute that day, and he opened my eyes to the sixth sense I didn’t know I had.  He was lecturing on key signatures and recognizing modulations and tone color changes.  The graduate assistant commented that many people see colors when they hear certain keys – yellow for D-Major, green for C-Major, blue for d-minor, etc.

 Suddenly, I thought to myself, “There is an actual term for this?  I thought I was just weird!”  I came to find out that many people have chromesthesia on some level or another.  I am an amateur visual artist as well as a professional musician, and I wonder if my chromesthesia has something to do with this. 

 Synesthesia is “the stimulation of one sense alongside another: the evocation of one kind of sense impression when another sense is stimulated, e.g. the sensation of color when a sound is heard”.  Technically, synesthesia is an umbrella term for the ability to associate any one sense with another, and chromesthesia is the term for the ability to associate color with music.

Rainbow Analysis: G Major Allemande

This is a color-coded score I created of the articulation/bowing/phrasing markings in the 5 manuscripts we have available to us. Although it looks like a rainbow vomited all over the paper, I like to look at it as God's promise to me that I will one day understand what the heck Bach might have wanted :). This score is helpful in identifying over-all trends and tendencies as well as inconsistencies among the copyists as well as within their own manuscripts. It is difficult to always have 5 scores spread out on the floor, so combining them into one saves time and space.


A = Anna Magdalena Bach
B = Johann Peter Kellner
C = Johann Christoph Westphal?
D = Anonymous
E = First edition (anonymous)

Harmonic Analysis: G Major Prelude

Rainbow Analysis: G Major Prelude

This is a color-coded score I created of the articulation/bowing/phrasing markings in the 5 manuscripts we have available to us.  Although it looks like a rainbow vomited all over the paper, I like to look at it as God's promise to me that I will one day understand what the heck Bach might have wanted :). This score is helpful in identifying over-all trends and tendencies as well as inconsistencies among the copyists as well as within their own manuscripts.  It is difficult to always have 5 scores spread out on the floor, so combining them into one saves time and space. 


A = Anna Magdalena Bach
B = Johann Peter Kellner
C = Johann Christoph Westphal?
D = Anonymous
E = First edition (anonymous)

Recording: Suite No. 1 in G Major

 

Prelude

 

 

March Madness

March started off with so much drive, passion and hope.  I had a purpose.  Now I feel unmotivated and directionless.

 Lafayette Elementary, the school where I have taught for 5 years, will be closed as of June 2013.  I have worked and struggled to help create a music program at this school and it is sad to see it disappear at the whim of a corrupt politician.  

The loss of this school brings many concerns to my mind: 

1)       My dear students will no longer receive a music education and are now forced to walk to a school outside of their neighborhood where they will be subject to gang violence, racism, and crowded classrooms

2)       A third of my income will disappear

3)      What will I do next?

I thrive on motivation, projects, and direction.  I have the projects, but am currently lacking the motivation and direction.  I am distraught over losing something that I never originally wanted, yet grew to love deeply and passionately. 

Theorbo Does Bach

  Last week I went on a mini tour to Nashville, TN with a classical/pop chamber group.  I drove close to 18 hours in 3 days, played four concerts, and had a blast.  The only attention that Mr. Bach received, however, was during sound checks: a little Allemande here a little Sarabande there.  Within 12 hours of my return to Chicago, I immersed myself once again in the wonderful world of Bach, and it was good.

I share a teaching studio at Northwestern University Academy with an amazing guitarist who helps organize the Segovia Series at NU.  After teaching one day, he told me about an upcoming recital featuring Hopkinson Smith on the German lute (a.k.a. theorbo) performing the first three Bach Cello Suites.  There was no way I could miss this. Despite my crazy weekend of traveling and performing, I  canceled my teaching and decided to treat myself to an afternoon of baroque bliss. 

Macro versus Micro: Pointillism in Music

 

  I've always enjoyed afternoons spent at the art museum. While attending the Cleveland Institute of Music, I would often stop in during practice breaks just to admire a few of my favorite paintings. Unfortunately, the Art Institute in Chicago is not free of entry as is the Cleveland Museum of Art, so I don't go as often as I would like, and if I do, I plan on staying several hours as not to waste $23. I am a musician, but I find it refreshing and exciting to allow other art forms to inspire and influence my own.

  On a recent visit, I found myself thoroughly mesmerized with Seurat's famous painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. At first, I simply stood back and enjoyed the beauty - the lively colors, the content, the mood, the fashion, etc. Soon I inched closer and closer to the painting (well, as close as those grumpy security "officers" would allow) to examine the millions of tiny dots that Seurat used to create this masterpiece. Upon close inspection, this technique of pointillism seems so unnatural, contrived, detailed, and compartmentalized; but from a distance, the myriad of dots melt together into one unified and realistic work of art.  This seeming dichotomy of micro and macro must exist in art. 

  As I have been studying the Suites, I find that I often get lost in the details, but Seurat’s painting reminded me that this is a crucial step in creating art.  Every harmonic movement, melodic motif, articulation, bowing, dynamic, etc. is like the dots in pointillism. The micro must be addressed in order to create the macro. The challenge is to release one’s self from the details, step back, and look at the big picture. 

A Blog is Not a Dissertation

 

It has been exactly one week since my last post.  Yes, I have been busy, but this is no excuse.  The truth is that I am overwhelmed by the enormity of this project.  Thankfully, I now realize that I was completely missing the point of blogging, thereby sabotaging my own project.

 

On Thursday evening, the previously mentioned handsome Latino man, who I am proud to now call my boyfriend, took me out to dinner.  As we sat in the dimly lit room of Lula Cafe in the heart of Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, we talked about everything from our shared love for food to our dream vacation destinations.  We also talked about blogging.

 

It just so happens that the handsome man who sat across from me at Lula's is a a very skilled, professional writer.  He is very supportive of my project and gave me some great advice that I believe will help me continue in my journey.

 

In discussing the blog, I couldn't help but reveal my excitement over certain discoveries I had made  in my studying and practicing.  I also couldn't help but disclose my frustration over my inability to make decisions and failure to write another post.  I shared how I listened to and compared several recordings, how I found materials from years past when I first started this project, how I started researching which video camera to buy so that I can record my interpretation of each movement. 

 

And So It Begins

 

Suite No. 1 in G Major

 

 

 What makes these works of J.S. Bach so difficult for the the cellist (bassist, violist, trombonist, marimbist, and any other instrument that transcribes the suites)?:

 

1.    We do not have an original manuscript.  I envy all the violinists out there who have Bach's direct instructions for the partitas.  If only we had the same for the suites!

 

2.  Some of the suites were written for different tuning and even different instruments (suites 5 and 6) 

 

3.  It was written for an instrument that used gut strings and a baroque bow, not steel/silver/tungsten strings and a  modern bow.

 

4.  Bach was a genius.  There is a dichotomy of simplicity and complexity in his music that if ignored or overworked can ruin a performance.

 

I am sure I could come up with more reasons if I sat here long enough at 3:00 AM in deep thought, but I certainly can and will expound on all the reasons listed above throughout the blog. 

 

Becca Does Bach

 

 The title is meant to grab one's attention. My love for alliteration tempted me to name this blog "Becca Bangs Bach", but I decided that was a hair too vulgar. No, this is not a musical rendition of Debbie Does Dallas... sorry to disappoint.  This is a chronicle of my journey with the infamous Cello Suites of the famous Johann Sebastian Bach.  

 

I turned 30 last July.  I found my late 20's to be very scary and stressful as I dreaded entering a new decade.  As if my life would end at 30, I made a VERY ambitious list of all the things I wanted to do before that inevitable day:

 

Things To Do Before I Turn 30

 

1) Create my own edition of the Bach Cello Suites and record

2) Record all the Popper Etudes and write a supplementary practice guide

3) Run another marathon

4) Get married

5) Learn Spanish

6) Create a website 

7) Read more books (vague, I know)