A summer of notes. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Or rather, old dogs
know most of the tricks, but sometimes have trouble remembering what they actually are!
I spent a long summer at home, I think the first time I have ever stayed in Columbia for the whole time. I have several projects on the fire, but two have taken most of
my time. The first one has been learning four Preludes and Fugues from Bach's WTC II.
I always stayed close to WTC I in my teaching, finding the Preludes especially useful
in building up quick thinking and strong fingers. The distance up to WTC II is over
twenty years, and they are totally different in many aspects. One of the most striking ways is the stronger connection between the Prelude and its accompanying Fugue. Also, the counterpoint of the Fugues is more chromatic and challenging in its execution. There is also a very Italian feel to the vocal lines, reflecting Bach's deep study of Italian religous works in preparation for his great Passions and Mass. Many of the Fugues call out for texts derived from the liturgy. Bach is still up to his borrowing of themes, or outright theft, for instance the subject of the Fugue in E Major, taken from Johann Fischer and his Adriana Musica.
After reviewing Bach recordings by the most successful of the current crop, and also returning to some favorites from the past, I was struck more than ever by the wide
choices still open to us today. One can easily throw up ones hands (hopefully not while
playing!). I have zeroed in on articulation and fingerings. If we actually do what
Bach implies in his figurations, we must have incredible control, and patience in
the learning process. Great care must be taken in understanding the principles of
holding notes, especially with the thumb, while playing rapid figurations with the
other fingers...in other words...learning to play on both sides of the hand without
developing undue tension and stress. So, you think, just put the pedal down and let
it hold everything. Disaster looms! Instead, you must often pass the fourth finger over
the firth finger, devise quick finger substitutions, break up some knotty places by
taking a note with the opposite hand, and not relying on the pedal, except in special
circumstances.
How much easier it is to just pedal away in Bach. I was often startled by teachers
who would ask me if I used the pedal in Bach, or just left it out altogether. I guess
the answer to this is just how much blur can you endure! What I actually do is hard
to teach. I use the pedal in tiny dabs, almost like a glue gun, where I can bind a
note to another in an instant, or connect a far flung line. What I do NOT do is just
pedal away, with no thought about purity of line and clarity of counterpoint. I think
of Bach has layers of voices, each with its distinct character and articulation.
This raises the question of the early instruments versus the piano. I think Bach is
wonderful on any instrument, and the piano adds its own dimension. What is most important is to do the scholarship for an enlightened performance, but be catholic
enough in taste that you can take inspiration from varying viewpoints. What I want
to avoid is becoming trapped in dogmatic arguments that squeeze all the life out of
the music.
Wanda Landowska was the wonderful soul who revived the harpsichord in France between
the world wars. She actually had her instruments souped up to the hilt. She was not only advancing her own knowledge and performance practices, but she was also stirring
up a public uninitiated in both the literature and the instrument. She took rather
bold action to get herself extablished at a time when Baroque music was in the background. In our time, Glenn Gould established a new goal post for the playing
field. He was equally as bold as Landowska and to some a radical. Since those heady
days of his first "Goldberg Variationa" things have leveled off, and scholarship has
made incredible advances. But it also remains true that many still teach Bach from
poor editions, or ones that are so heavily edited you lose track of where to look.
The answer to all this is to set a plan of self directed study, and work from an urtext
score. Take advantage of all the main editions, especially suggestions for fingering.
I found a copy of Gabriel Faure's Well Tempered Clavier which has the most incredible
fingerings, and as he was very adept at the organ, a lot of these fingerings are
based on organ techiques. Another rather lost edition is by Alfredo Casella, published by Ricordi. I find his edition comforting and brilliantly realized.
In conclusion, I find there is always intense interest from teachers in the execution
of ornamentation, but rarely any interest in articulation. That is because to get
interested in articulation, you have to develop your own criteria, or for want of a
dangerous word, PHILOSOPHY. You must go back and study the earlier writings of Forkel,C.P.E. Bach, Schweitzer, Tovey, Landowska, Edwin Fischer, et alia, and be amazed at the completeness of their vision and boldness of approach. Only then can one begin to dig into the present.
(to be concluded..
