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

The Influencer

2/26/2016

 
by Rebecca Cochran
 
I’m still on a “high” from hearing a live performance by The Knights with violinist, Gil Shaham last evening. The program consisted of Rebel, Prokofiev and Beethoven. As an avid listener of Bach, I decided to challenge myself to listen for Bach’s influence in the composers represented in last night’s program.
 
The similarities between Bach’s music and Rebel’s Les Charatères de la Danse were fairly obvious. Bach and Rebel were contemporaries. Whether they knew each other or not, they were both composing music in the popular dance forms of their day.
 
Prokofiev may have criticized his rival, Igor Stravinsky, for succumbing to “Bach-isms” in his compositions for the dance, but I thought I detected a few such “isms” in his own Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor. For instance, the role reversals between the violin soloist and orchestra in the achingly beautiful 2nd movement, Andante assai, sounded quite Bach-like.
 
Bach showed up everywhere in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (the Eroica). From the fugatos in the 2nd movement (Marcia funebre) to the artful recycling, in the Finale, of a theme Beethoven had used in several earlier compositions, Bach’s genius was being imitated by yet another genius.

Listening to Bach is one of my passions. Listening for Bach can be just as enlightening!

Comments are closed.

    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