CCCLXXIX. BACH, J.S. (1685-1750)
Scott Ross (1951-1989) is worth talking about:
Born in my hometown of Pittsburgh, he had severe scoliosis that kept him in a corset for most of his childhood.
But he overcame that and much more. His father died when he was still very young, and he moved to France with his mother, who committed suicide when Ross was 19. He taught and recorded -- the complete keyboard works of Rameau, Couperin, and finally, amazingly, all 555 sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti [see Posts CI and CXXXIV, performances by other harpsichordists ...] in 98 sessions; 8,000 takes!
He died of AIDS, age 38.
**
Bach -- who composed his music to glorify God -- also had a wife or two, and some 20 children to feed. So after publishing the first partita of this set of six, he supplied the steady demand by patiently writing five more, which earned him a few pfennigs.
1. Tocccata
From the Italian toccare -- to touch.
Bach begins with a fantasia; settles down with a few bars of normal tempo, then quickly returns to the rich harmonic language of this exciting flight of fancy.
A three-voice mordent-laced fugue:
and a return to the opening fantasia for the coda:
2. Allemande
A short highly-decorated dance in E Minor (the tonic for all of the movements in this suite) ... look how Bach creeps up stepwise in the bass to create the initial cadence:
And these two beats of gorgeous descending 32nd-notes in thirds plus an octave:
3. Corrente
Courante = running.
Put your shoes on. Bach is immediately off on a syncopated dash, followed by a section with straight 32nd-notes:
4. Air
5. Sarabande
Heart-aching beautiful. Ross's ornamentation is awesome:
6. Tempo di gavotta
7. Gigue
What is this time signature?
After such wonderful work, Bach deserved to be paid for the gigue. 😑
BTW, don't mean to offen any Gould fans, but here's Ross's take on the man:
"When I hear nutcases like Glenn Gould who do: [plays staccato version of Partita #1, BWV 825, Allemande], I say he understood nothing of Bach's music! I've listened carefully to his records: he didn't understand. He was very brilliant. I respect him up to a certain point. For me, the fact that an artist doesn't appear in public poses a problem. But at least he was a guy with the courage not to do things like other people. All the same, he was wide off the mark, so wide off the mark that you'd need a 747 to bring him back. I'm hard on Glenn Gould. Well, he's dead now, so I won't attack a colleague."
Amen, brother.
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