Dancing Bach on the organ
In 2017 a simple but essential change marked the difference between my old and new way of playing Bach: inspired by my former teacher Rudi van Straten I started making upward movements from my lower stomach on strong beats.This literally gives a "gut" feeling which compensates for too much acitivity in the brain and the heart. It is the result of changing the perspective from Bach as the highlight of Western art music —a notion which only came into existance in the 19th century—to Bach as a highlight of music in general, i.e. of all ages and cultures. Many types of world music, jazz, pop and also Western music before 1800 have a natural relation to dance. Bach's music too, as confirmed by titles like gavotte, gigue or sarabande, but is mostly not performed accordingly. "Dancing Bach on the organ" implies for me performing Bach like my own music, which is thoroughly influenced by working with musicians from world music, avant-jazz and avant-pop traditions. Similar to these musicians and keyboard players in the 18th century, improvisation, composition and interpretation are completely interwoven in my musicianship and not considered as separate disciplines (another consequence of developments in the 19th and 20th century). "Dancing Bach on the organ" clearly relates to my project Olivier Messiaen and the Cave of Forgotten Sounds with Indian master musicians ,as I transfer the lightness and souplesse of performing with Indian tabla masters to Bach interpretation.
Physical, mental and spiritual consequences
Upward movements from the lower stomach on strong beats result in:
- a dancelike movement while playing (also regarding the wrists)
- an improved breathing
- a tendency to lean back instead of forward. I have been searching for this for many years, as I always found that a keyboard player's world becomes small when bowing towards the instrument too much. Contemporaries of Bach observed that while playing he used to looked in front of him, not at the manuals.
There is also a mental or even spiritual result: feeling more harmony between the organ, the sound and the space of the church. The organist's ears have to be where the audience is; leaning back with a gut feeling and good breathing makes this easier. One feels more like being at the heart of the event and its meaning. I admire Dutch organist Feike Asma (1912-1984) for being able to raise this rare quality almost to the level of a mystical experience. I am also intrigued by the tradition of blind organists, beginning with Francesco Landini in the 14th century. Blind musicians may have a better antenna for the musical and spiritual qualities of a space. In addition I admire the blind keyboard player Ray Charles for the fantastic dancelike feeling of his music.
The following recording of Invocation, the first movement of Olivier Messiaen and the Cave of Forgotten Sounds with Indian master musicians shows my reflection on this aspect of Feike Asma's musicianship and the way I intend to transfer it to Bach interpretation.
Using four basic emotions as transmitters
To pass on the dancelike feeling of my own music to Bach interpretaton I concentrate on four states of mind which are essential for both Bach's music and my own improvisations and compositions: joy, rage, suffering and longing. These emotions have been naturally related to dance anywhre in the world and throughout the ages.
1. JOY
Childlike, naive joy is almost impossible to find in contemporary classical music. I consider this as a lack of vitality, partly due to the above mentioned 19th and 20th century notion of Western art music. On the contrary, my improvisations and compositions cannot live without this simple joy. They would implode like black holes. In this respect I consider my music as completely unrelated to contemporary classical music. An example is Birds, drums and signals, with flutist Martijn Alsters:
I use this naive joy, for instance, for the performance of trio sonatas and feel in particular inspired by pianists Clara Haskil (1895-1960) and Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009), who expressed the dancelike character of 18th century keyboard music in the most natural way and confirmed that this was the basis also for their interpretation of music from the 19th century.
Reflecting on Theo Teunissen's organ lessons in 1977-1978 I now play with "dancing wrists", as demonstrated here:
In the following interpretation of the well-known chorale prelude Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme I intend to combine de Larrocha's famous rhytmic impetus with Haskil's imaginative rubato.
2. RAGE
Rage is a powerful source of creativity, which can be transformed in several ways to serve a performance. In my own music I often relate it to wild energy in nature and the universe:
Regarding Bach rage and wild energy can be considered as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit and transformed into majesty and spiritual grandeur. This does not imply any form of ponderosity; on the contrary, the lightness and souplesse of a trio sonata remains to be the starting-point. It only manifests itself in a different type of dance now.
3 and 4. SUFFERING AND LONGING
Longing and suffering cannot be separated from each other and are essential for Bach's music. They are deeply felt in my organ piece InMemoriam Claire Delbos:
This I intend to transfer to the interpretation of Bach's profound chorale preludes, with the lightness and souplesse mentioned above, resulting in yet another type of dance.
The above examples are played with the digitalized sound of ancient instruments of my study organ at home. They will serve a course which I am preparing (not necessarily for Codarts, University of the Arts, Rotterdam), called Analysis, interpretation and physicality, in which my expertise as a performer and a theorist will be combined.
For the research, a next step will be to realize my new way of playing Bach on some of the many beautiful historical organs in Europe.
Personally (not so for students) Dancing Bach on the Organ is about going beyond professionalism and re-discovering a lost naivity. A naivity that is beautifully simple and efficient.
This project is dedicated to the memory of violinist and composer Claire Delbos, Messiaen's first wife, who tragically spent the last fifteen years of her life in a psychiatric institute.
See also my blog: Some Thoughts on Playing the Organ
