Today, part 2 of my new video series on the Bach solo cello suites, featuring the G major Allemande. After Bach’s relentless use of one motif in the famous Prelude, he shifts gears completely and uses several different ideas, going from one to the next very quickly. There’s something of Bach the family man in all his pieces, and this one’s no exception – you’ll see what I mean. Bach also shows that his influence goes beyond music to 20th Century American tv dramas – this piece contains what I call the “Columbo effect”. If you like the video, please click on the donate button below to support 4-Way’s education program – thanks!
For a long time, I’ve wanted to share my take on the Bach cello suites with a wider audience, so I’ve decided to make a series of videos – each one will cover one movement. No better place to start than the beginning, with the most famous of Bach’s pieces for solo cello, the Prelude to the G major Suite. I hope you like the video and that the music brings you the same joy it brings me. In exchange, I’m asking you to consider supporting something else I care deeply about.
Many of you know I have also started a non-profit string quartet, 4-Way, and we’re raising funds for our free education program. So, especially because it’s Giving Tuesday, please think about making a tax-deductible donation if you like the video. Please post your comments, and share this with your online community!
In my last post, I wrote about my summer visit to my grandmother, and the importance of our music in our relationship since I was a kid. A few weeks after my trip to LA, I attended the Bar Mitzvah of the son of one of my closest friends, who also grew up in a family of musicians. Virtually everyone in the Gershfeld clan plays a string instrument, so as part of the festivities, there was a reading of the Brandenburg Concerto #3 by three generations of the family – the Bar Mitzvah himself on cello, along with his younger brother (who leads the beginning), father, uncle, aunt, cousins and two grandparents – as well as his cello teacher, myself, and a few other guests. Check out the video – it’s a hoot.
https://youtu.be/GjXaW9x24ug&w=550
As you can see, the joy and sense of community in that room was remarkable, and the experience reminded me that this is what music is for – to be played. I know so many people who only know “classical” music as listeners, and I would bet that many of today’s concertgoers are not players themselves, which is a shame. There was a time not so long ago when families like the Gershfelds were the norm, not the exception I suspect they are today. Wouldn’t it be great to have family gatherings like this one in every home?
Well, here’s one way to make it happen. My friends at MYCincinnati – a free orchestra program serving children in Price Hill, on Cincinnati’s West Side – are now offering a class for adults, populated largely by, you guessed it, parents of the kids who already study there. My favorite part of the picture is the kids helping their parents – they too are passing music from one generation to another, just in reverse! Let’s hope more string programs will follow their example, and more families can experience the joy of playing the Brandenburg Concertos together!
Today is Bach’s 331st birthday! 4-Way celebrated yesterday, with a performance at Cincinnati Museum Center, as part of Bach In The Subways, the annual celebration of JSB’s big day. If you haven’t already, take a few minutes today and play or listen to some Bach – it’s a nice way to wish him a Happy Birthday, and will make up for the present you forgot to get him.
Stravinsky supposedly once said:”Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.”
The recent decision to award Marvin Gaye’s family several million dollars over copyright violations by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams in their recent hit “Blurred Lines” has sparked a lot of discussion about the border between imitation and plagiarism in the music world, a “blurred line” if there ever was one. There are lots of examples in the classical world, which I’ll get to in a minute.
Pop music is full of ripoffs – the way the business works, it’s almost inevitable. There have been many lawsuits like this recent one – artists like Johnny Cash and the Beatles were accused of theft, and in my personal favorite, John Fogerty was sued for ripping off his own band, Creedence Clearwater Revival!
“When asked if he was present for the creation of ‘Blurred Lines,’ Thicke replied: ‘I was present. Obviously, I sang it. I had to be there…To be honest, that’s the only part where – I was high on vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio…I wanted some credit for this big hit. But the reality is, is that Pharrell had the beat and he wrote almost every single part of the song.'”
So, in summary, Mr. Thicke went with a combination of “I didn’t do it, but I wanted credit for it because it made me a lot of money” and “I was high, so I actually couldn’t have done it” – an impressive pairing indeed. There are lots of blurred lines here – makes me think of this one:
But wait, it gets better – when an attorney for the Gaye family played a mash-up of the Gaye original, “Got To Give It Up,” and the Williams/Thicke opus, to show their similarities, Thicke protested:
“It’s so hard to listen to it…This is [like] Stanley Kubrick’s movie Clockwork Orange. Where he has to sit there and watch…Mozart would be rolling in his grave right now.”
Well, at least Mozart has been avenged – I know I feel better.
Anyway, there’s a long history of imitation and borrowing in classical music, going back at least to the days of Palestrina and Josquin writing masses based on popular or sacred melodies of the time. Bach updated (and improved) pieces by Vivaldi, though of course he did it openly. Our whistleblower Stravinsky used Russian folk melodies in the Rite of Spring (and denied it).
Brahms’s famous Variations on a Theme of Haydn – the theme isn’t by Haydn. Did Brahms know? Maybe, maybe not. In any case, composers routinely would put the names of more famous colleagues on pieces to help them sell – the great violinist Fritz Kreisler was notorious for it.
Now this is a more impressive kind of deception – instead of simply ripping someone else off, you have to imitate them convincingly – not too easy! One of my favorite cellist-composers, Gaspar Cassadó, was really good at it – here’s his very impressive counterfeit “Schubert” piece (played by a very good cellist from Cassadó’s era I confess I’d never heard of, Feodor Luzanov):
To me, this is artful and respectful imitation, even if Cassadó blurred some lines of his own in putting Schubert’s name on it! Perhaps Mr. Thicke could learn a lesson from Cassadó – if you’re going to mislead people, do it skillfully! Also, consult your PR manager and/or lawyer before testifying in open court.
In any case, really good imitation is something to enjoy – I’ll leave you with my new favorite example. A few weeks ago, I was driving to a rehearsal and listening to the radio – an old Ella Fitzgerald record came on and I almost crashed the car – here’s why:
