The day before ...

Greetings from a *cold* Harleysville, PA!

(I think all this time in NM, California, etc., has made my blood too thin for this).

I'm back at the "Ditlow Homestead" and have loved catching up with grandparents, brothers, sisters, parents, and my musical community to which I had such strong ties for the early part of my career. What is so exciting is that these ties have continued, and somehow even deepened, as we've all developed our lives and careers. A recent personnel change (due to weather) caused me to have to contact some people who I haven't seen or written to for a while, and I was moved by their immediate, warm responses and their willingness to help. (Problem solved, by the way!).

I've solved the epidemic problem of "Harleysville being on the edge of civilization" (meaning no Starbucks!) by taking matters into my own hands and bringing a milk frother, stovetop espresso maker, and Lavazza espresso with me. 

Tomorrow is "Bach by Candlelight" - and I couldn't resist making this "meme" ...

On this concert, I am the only person on it who gets the distinction of playing every piece - and really to play all "three" keyboard instruments. Within these works, I am charged with playing: 

1). 'orchestral' parts - multiple lines, covering for instruments we don't have ...

2). virtuoso solo music in the triple concerto (we're doing it on piano) - and the prelude and fugue isn't easy, either ... 

3). improvised and realized keyboard figured bass (but more than half of the music isn't figured) ... so essentially I'm making up the keyboard part in the right hand ... 

I found this quote from Bach which perfectly describes the magic of playing continuo:

"Like all music, the figured bass should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and recreation fo the soul; where this is not kept in mind there is no true music, but only an infernal clamor and ranting." 

I listened to rehearsal footage last night so that I can practice better today ... 

But there is also every genre possible in Bach's music - both looking back to Renaissance polyphony, and even the "rules" from plainchant or melodic construction - and - jazz, bebop, and ... heavy metal ... (there is a passage in the Bach d minor double violin concerto which makes me smile every time - it's Guns N' Roses, 260 years too early) .... 

Magnificat

This past Sunday, I got to make music in a way that I really "believed.” During the course of times that have been far too crammed, this came (strangely) as a huge blessing and gift.   

I have known the Bach Magnificat perhaps since undergraduate, when I played some of the solo arias in lessons for friends and colleagues. 

At Westminster Choir College, Dr. Andrew Megill led the Westminster Kantorei in a rehearsal and performance process that was life-changing.

Several other performances have followed.

When I was asked to take over (some) choral duties at UNM for this academic year, I bartered for the top auditioned choir. This year has been an amazing journey for me with them, as I have learned some things as a choral conductor “from scratch” (warm-ups, administration). Other things I feel have been a very natural extension of me (rehearsing a cappella, further development of ears, honing in on rhythm, controlling more lines of polyphony, further work on musicianship). 

The only thing I REALLY wanted to do, all year, was this piece. 

Thirty minutes of unadulterated joy. It’s also one of the most perfect pieces of music ever written. It’s the best of Bach (and that is saying a *lot*). Imagine my surprise when my colleagues delightedly volunteered to play in the orchestra. They were able to recommend graduate students to fill out the ranks.

One of my best students (a good undergraduate singer) said,

“The thirty minutes we shared on stage might be one of the best memories of my life. Doing anything."

Thank you.

As Bach said, "Soli Dei Gloria." 

The Force of J.S. Bach

We have a big concert (and two big concerti) tomorrow night! It’s the third annual “Bach by Candlelight.” Click here to purchase tickets. 

PHOTO: A Go-Pro photo of Bach practicing, Concerto in d minor, BWV 1052. Come on Saturday to hear it! 

 

Here is a video link to something I made. Click on this ...  See if you get the joke - you have to watch until the end of the video - 

And here is a quote by Glenn Gould that perfectly sums up why I / we do this concert every year, and my feelings on Bach’s music in particular …. 

 

"I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach. 

"I really can’t think of any other music which is so all-encompassing, which moves me so deeply and so consistently, and which, to use a rather imprecise word, is valuable beyond all of its skill and brilliance for something more meaningful than that — its humanity."

Bird's-Eye Bach

I’ve been enjoying the downtime and practicing Bach a lot. And I’m taking a page from this artist and have been filming my practicing. I’ve been noticing two things, which are small technicall break-throughs for me ...

1. I have to have contact with key before I release it downward. For years, I’ve been probably using a lot of (mini) "blind-landings” from fingertip to key. Something in my harpsichord practice yesterday really “klicked.” 

2. The videos have also identified small micro-bursts of energy that don’t go with the music. These are the “I don’t believe yous” that I am trying to help my students identify in themselves. I’m a firm believer in “teachers should not ask something of others that they cannot do themselves.” 

PHOTO: A bird's-eye view of Bach practicing. 

I’m grateful for this breathing time, and this time to be my own teacher.

Count-down

I forever love the quote from a book I read about the Guarneri String Quartet. They (jokingly) make light of the fact that there is rarely any money in chamber music, and when there is any money, it certainly isn’t much. I am determined to solve this problem. 

The arts don’t sustain themselves financially. In the days when Bach would have been alive, he was essentially writing “pop music,” much in the vein of how a praise band would write a chart for a contemporary worship service. Back in those days, we didn’t have “early musicians,” rock musicians,” “pop musicians,” or “classical musicians.” 

We had musicians.

And we need to go back to that. There is just as much to learn from Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” improvisation and Billy Joel’s amazing piano lick in “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” (the one in G Major, right before the “Oh-oh’s,” and before the great re-transition to F Major) as we can from studying the cadenza to … basically any instrumental concerto in the canon.

I have long worked on the precision and cleanliness in my playing, and it has come along way. Any musician who plays classical music needs to then swing the pendulum in the other direction, as to call upon the spirit and presence of the original. As if to say, “Bach is in the room. Let’s groove it.”  

 

 

PHOTO: Lukens Trio and Friends, from “Bach by Candlelight 2014"

Or another way to think of it is to “transcend” the instrument. Beethoven, in speaking to Schuppanzigh, said, 

“Do you think I worry about your lousy fiddle when the spirit speaks to me?” 

(this was after Schuppanzigh complained about the difficulties that he encountered when playing one of the quartets).

My goal in playing the d minor Bach concerto coming up will be to (of course) play accurately … 

but even much more than that ...

to make the listeners feel like we have taken a time machine back to Leipzig, and we are listening to some of the greatest music ever written and enjoying the thrill of the idea that it “could” have been created on the spot.

If you would like to attend our concert on 12/19/15, please consider reserving your space in advance. You might even consider a CD! You can click here (Lukens Trio Kickstarter) to learn more about that. Thank you! 

Continuo

"In order to be faithful to the written music, one must be prepared to alter the written notes." (from ON EARLY MUSIC)

What? 

I think it is easier for a classical musician to understand this as "one must know everything so well, and be so free, that one can transcend the score." 

In playing anything in public, but specifically an unrealized continuo part, one must call upon skill sets closer to what jazz musicians use. You have to be at home with form, harmony, sequences, riffs, licks, and gestures. You play as if to say, "Yes, and ..." 

I am an especially lucky girl these days. I have been able to borrow and practice on the collection of harpsichords which UNM has (they have *six* good instruments under lock-and-key in the basement!). 

These instruments tell stories in a way that a modern piano can't. Their uniqueness, and what the instrument will-or-won't hold, regarding tuning. 

I purchased a tuner for my iPhone (on encouragement from my historical performance teacher at Eastman, Paul O'Dette), which will help you tune an instrument within any "meister" or "comma" imaginable. When I do the Bach and Shostakovich project recordings, I will take advantage of this. 

Late November and all of December are two parties for baroque playing for me. Last weekend was another performance at Chatter (same great institution, just a different location) ...

(PHOTO: from my GoPro, playing some wild Biber pieces)

... and December 3-4 will be an off-shoot of "Movable Sol"'s concert series, "Barokk Werke Verzeichniss." (A play on BWV). On that docket are several preludes and fugues from WTC I (I have been doing more WTC II these days, but the WTC I is always wonderful to revisit), a Boccherini gamba sonata, and some works for unaccompanied 'cello.

December 19th will bring a blissful reunion with my wonderful trio back on the East Coast. I will get to perform again Bach's great Harpsichord Concerto in d minor (I last performed this in the winter of 2004. This performance has brought about new practice techniques, much more work and training since then on my technique and on harpsichord, and new scores and editions have come out since I last performed it). 

Here's to continuo until the end of the semester ...