Flute Alone
  • Home
  • Rebecca Cochran
  • Appearances
  • Listen
  • Contact / Bookings
  • News
  • My Year of Bach

One Note by Bach

1/9/2016

0 Comments

 
by Rebecca Cochran
 
I just ran across a post from 2009 by Fenwick Smith, former Boston Symphony Orchestra flutist and long-time professor of flute at New England Conservatory. The post is titled, Bach’s Partita for Flute Alone: The Dilemma.
 
In this short post, Smith discusses how the opening movement of Bach’s Partita presents a quandary to the flutist. Just imagine: the year was 1717 and Bach was writing his first piece for the newly invented transverse flute, rather than the recorder. Bach ambitiously opens the Partita with an Allemande, writing 18 measures of continuous sixteenth notes before providing the first pause for a breath. Smith then goes on to explain how we flutists, as we study the architecture and logic of Bach’s music, can eventually learn how to manage our breathing without disrupting the flow of the piece –- no mean feat, I might add!
 
This post reminded me of one of my earliest lessons on the Partita with my teacher and mentor, Louis Moyse, whose editions of the complete Bach Sonatas for flute, including the Partita, are published by Schirmer. My “strategy” consisted of choosing to leave out a note or two as a way to make concessions for the challenges in breathing. I recalled Louis approving of this technique in earlier lessons as I studied works by other composers.
 
During this particular lesson, however, Louis stopped me mid-phrase and let me know, in no uncertain terms, that my strategy of leaving out an occasional sixteenth note would not suffice for the Partita. To this day, I remember his exact words:
 
“One note by Bach is more important than all of the other notes by all the other composers combined!”
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    My Year of Bach.

    This is an experiment.
    I love Bach: listening to Bach; playing Bach (alone or with others); discovering Bach; learning from Bach; sharing Bach.

    ​I need Bach in my daily life.

    ​So, for 2016, I'm challenging myself to write a short daily post about Bach. Come along for the ride, if you're so inclined. Let's listen, share and learn together!

    Archives

    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    Agile
    Alto
    Arnold Steinhardt
    Bach In The Subways Day
    Badinerie
    Brandenburg Concertos
    Canon
    Cantatas
    Chaconne
    Design Thinking
    Escher
    Fugue
    Goldberg
    Jacques Loussier
    J.S. Bach Foundation
    Louis Moyse
    Moyse Trio
    Musical Offering
    Orchestral Suites
    Partita
    Play Bach Trio
    Third Stream
    Trio Sonata
    Well Tempered Clavier

    RSS Feed