By John Fatuzzo
This weekend, students of Professor Alan Harris will be performing J.S. Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello in recital, with introductions and commentary by Dr. Steven Laitz. Two separate performances featuring different suites and performers will take place at Christ Church, 141 East Avenue, on Friday and Saturday, each at 7 p.m. For complete information, check the poster for the event here.
I had the opportunity to discuss the repertoire with two of the performers: Cora Swenson, a first year DMA student from Chicago, Illinois; and Daniel Ketter, a third-year DMA and PhD Theory student from Kansas City, Kansas. Cora will be performing Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011, and Daniel will play Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012. Both Daniel and Cora will be performing in Saturday evening’s recital.
John: Could you tell us about the music that you will be performing this weekend?
Cora: I will be performing Bach’s Suite No. 5 in C minor. It is an amazing piece, and the only one of the suites written in scordatura tuning- in this case that means that the “A” string of the cello is tuned down a whole step to “G”. This gives the suite a really unique sound because the cello gets a darker kind of resonance, and it allows for chords to be voiced differently.
Daniel: I will be performing Suite No. 6 in D major. This suite is interesting for several reasons. First, it was written for a five-stringed cello, which significantly increases the complexity of the chords that can be used, resulting in some very rich harmonies. Also, it poses a special opportunity for us modern cellists, since we have solve a fun puzzle in order to play the piece with only four strings instead of five. As the last of the six suites, in the joyful and resonant key of D major, it’s a monumental celebration of the solo possibilities of the instrument and totally awesome to play.
John: What are some of the primary challenges of this piece for you as the performer?
Cora: There are plenty of technical challenges involved in preparing this piece- starting with adjusting to the tuning! But the really interesting challenges are interpretive ones. Bach often liked to play around with forms and characters of dances, but to me in this suite many of the movements seem to be having an identity crisis. For example, the Prelude you would expect to be a French Overture followed by a fugue, and it is to a certain extent. But there are sections of the overture that seem more closely related to an improvised organ prelude than a French overture. So how do you choose a tempo or affect? That kind of challenge is the most frustrating and at the same time the most intriguing and fun aspect of preparing this suite.
Daniel: It is important when performing these works that they should never sound difficult despite the inherent challenges of projecting a complete polyphonic texture on an instrument designed to play single lines. To achieve this goal I have to constantly ask myself simple questions like, “How many voices are there? What are they doing?” and find a way to clarify the musical content, deciding where each phrase goes and what notes should be grouped together. It’s a lifetime of study, and tons of fun.
John: What do you enjoy most about the music you are performing or any of Bach’s music for cello?
Cora: I love performing Bach. There is so much nuance, so much to read into in terms of the historical context of when these pieces were written, which means there are infinite ways to hear them. Every day, every performance there is something new to discover. I also happen to perform on both modern and period instruments, which adds another level of discovery for me. Each instrument reveals something different about the piece- and they’re both gorgeous!
Daniel: It’s completely magical to me that Bach was able to create these perfect polyphonic works within the inherent limitations of a mostly single-line instrument like the cello. It’s even a little more interesting than with the violin suites and partitas because the violin is significantly more flexible with regard to the ease of playing chords and the span of the hand. It poses a lot of interesting questions about composition, counterpoint, and even about music generally. If only one line is being played, how is the effect of multiple lines created in the ear of the listener? Perhaps the real nature of the music isn’t something that is written down or even the combination of frequencies of notes that are performed, but something that takes place in the mind of the composer and is transmitted through filters (written music, performer’s interpretation, performance) to be recreated in the mind of the listener.
Johann Kirnberger, thought to be a pupil of J.S. Bach, said this about the challenges of unaccompanied single-line instrumental writing:
“It is even more difficult to write a simple melody without any accompaniment so that harmonically it would not be possible to add a voice without error, even disregarding the fact that the added voice would be most unsingable and awkward. Of this type we have the six unaccompanied sonatas for violin and six for violoncello by J. S. Bach.”
Bach himself arranged the Prelude to the E major Violin Partita for organ and small orchestra as the overture to the “Rathswahl” Cantata, BWV 29. The implication is that the overture to the cantata and the solo violin partita are actually the same piece! According to Kirnberger, there is nothing that could have been added in the cantata that was not already contained within the complete voice-leading framework of the violin prelude. There’s a lot of food for thought there and a challenge for us to imagine the implications and huge scope of these seemingly simple, yet deceptively complex cello suites.
John: Any additional information about the suites or the performances this weekend that you would like to add?
Cora: I am very excited about the upcoming concerts. It is not often you get to hear the six suites together, let alone six very different artists performing them. I think it will be incredibly interesting to experience how each of our own personalities is refracted through the lens of solo Bach- possibly the most personal music ever written. I think it will be a great event!
Daniel: Hope to see you there! I am very excited to see what Steve Laitz will have to say about the pieces and very happy to be participating in such a wonderful celebration of these works.