First of all a warm welcome to the GBS, a new initiative aiming to bring a complete and forward-thinking picture of Bach’s music back to a UK audience. This music video will be the first of many exciting projects that attempts to bridge the gap between a modern audience and this ancient, but not old-fashioned, music. Connoisseur’s wont need telling twice but for the uninitiated, this man felt with extreme clarity and depth all the highs and lows that came with being human. However unlike us, he had a (some-say) supernatural gift to translate these emotions into musical architecture and narrative, structure and order of an incomprehensible intellectual magnitude. His melodies cut us to the core, his harmonies keep us scratching our heads at this weird, alien language we have inherited. His work stays eternally relevant and of the highest importance, profound essays that need not just preserving, but honest and informed re-telling. This is the aim of the GBS.
Day 1:
After waking up half of Konstanz early morning Friday dragging my suitcase across the cobbles, I finally found my AirBnB, a lovely, secluded room overlooking the rooftops of this picturesque town.
The first day involved meeting Martin for the first time:
A brief playthrough + discussion at his flat, then heading to the church and setting up the equipment. It was quite the logistical challenge creating the studio from scratch but as soon as Martin sat down and started thundering the pieces across the room a buzz started that lasted the whole weekend, it created such a cool working environment. Problems started straight away as the Rode condenser mics we rented were completely unusable. I underestimated the complexity in setting up mics to record a piano and I was caught underprepared. We had to scrap them last minute and after confirming that the camera mic was semi-decent and didn’t clip, we pressed forward into recording. This wasn’t an ideal setup but it was all we could do so late in the game.
Recording order for Friday:
- Prelude
- Courante
- Sarabande
We managed to get nice recordings of all 3 of these movements. Martin and I were very happy with his Prelude and that shook off a few of his nerves as this is really the main attraction of the suite, getting a well-played take was paramount. We wrapped up at 11:30pm and headed to a bar to play some late-night pool & chess, so much fun and a nice contrast to the pubs back here in the UK.
Day 2:
Day 2 started off horrendously as, after arriving back to my AirBnB at 3am, somehow the lock had broken to the flats and I was stuck outside in 2 degree weather for 3 hours until some party-goers came back at 6 and let me in another way. It was miserable, too cold to even put the headphones in to listen to music, so I sat there with the Gavotte on repeat in my head which kept me company while I battled the elements. This did make me feel pretty rough the rest of the weekend but I tried to hide it as we needed all the energy we could muster to finish all the recording in 3 days.
The afternoon of this day was magical however as we arrived at the Church at 2:30pm to record the major key Gavotte section in daylight which was my vision going in. I was trying to set everything up while Martin practiced the B section but it was a challenge as this tiny piece is distractingly beautiful and infinitely bittersweet, a real joy to hear every single time. Any 15 seconds of Bach is a miracle.
As the light faded we also recorded the Allemande with the lights still off from the afternoon, this created an interesting lighting setup that introduces a small visual contrast. The movement itself enters into some very dark and dangerous waters, especially in the B section, it’s a harmonic labyrinth full of perilous twists and turns, a medieval quest in musical form.
Recording order for Saturday:
- Major key gavotte B section
- Allemande
This evening was also useful as Martin had to leave to play in a league Tennis match, this allowed me an evening with the room and piano to myself. I used this time to record all the scenic shots that didn’t require Martin, such as the closeups of the Crucifix. I also took this chance to record myself on the piano which segways us into something else I wanted to write:
No 1 Viking fan:
Like anyone else who has dove into his work, I am a huge fan of the extremely talented Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson. His latest release, Continuum, is inspirational as it aims to do exactly what I am trying to do with my group, bridging the gap between the more obscure Bach masterpieces and a modern audience. Taking random Cantata movements and creating sophisticated, expressive piano arrangements is such a noble and needed task, there is so much exquisite beauty in each Cantata it is criminal that they are so obscure.
In this vein I have also been working for a year and a bit on my own piano transcriptions of various Cantata movements I hold dear, these are just the incipits as my talent is a couple leagues below Vikingur, however I think they do a good job in just showing how dramatic, profound and singular each cantata composition is, from large scale Chorale Fantasias (BWV7) to Arias (BWV99), to even recitatives (BWV152).
Now the cantata recitatives in particular are often seen as quite dry and intimidating, but diving in and really giving them the time of day introduces a whole new world to Bach, it is him at his most pure, his most didactic. The constraints force him to craft the most extreme harmonic journeys, the most colourful and intense word painting as he employs his powerful, pious mind onto the most basic musical structure, a single vocal line + continuo. Understanding the language of the recitatives is key to unlocking the secrets to his vast harmonic system and helps in deciphering the rest of his music.
I really like my interpretation of BWV152 and I try to show how the piece goes from extremely malevolent and tragic (commenting on the evil world) to overwhelmingly joyful in a split second as soon as the blessed Christian is introduced. Just a marvellous and innovative use of musical narrative, something we can only marvel at in confusion. Also to note is the unbelievable downwards jump of a tenth (15 semitones) on the word “fall”, creating the most futuristic minor second dissonance!
I hope you enjoy these incipits that I recorded on the evening of Day 2 (the camera audio is really poor here though, I honestly should have just used my phone):
Day 3:
This day was crunch time as we still had a lot left to film and this was definitely going to be our last day. We only had 2 movements to record but this included the Gigue which ended up being a total monster with the sheer amount of extended trills and complexity of the counterpoint. While Martin was practicing I recorded the outside shots that pop up now and then to great effect. Martin powered through the Gigue, take after take, showing the great perfectionist drive which I am sure we all feel on projects that are very important to us. After finally getting a couple takes we were happy with we wrapped up with the credit scene and headed home to celebrate a successful recording session. We were spent. The job for me was just beginning however.
The Passion Gigue
The idea for the gigue came to me in a flash on a 3 hour coach ride back from London, a quick realisation I could connect the musical signature in the final movement to the textual signature in the first line of the Johannespassion:
Jesus ging mit seinen Jüngern über den Bach Kidron,
Jesus went with his disciples over the brook Kidron
The original treatment had more references to BWV245 however this was all stripped out in the end. Alas, this was my in, my justification for seeing this as passion music. Bach directly using his name as a doorway we can peek through to glimpse the most profound and the most sublime, mirroring in a smaller sense how he himself acts as this doorway for us as a man with a pen in his hand and blank paper in front of him. This is why things get a little intense after his name is introduced, I don’t want to say any more about this however, just that this is my statement, my vision for the group, this is not old, dead music, but a platform we can use to build on, and we will create new, never before seen things.
Conclusion:
To round up I would like to give a quick few positives and negatives of the whole video as I reflect and move onto the next project.
Positives:
- World class performance by Martin Schill, couldn’t have asked for a better played suite, this guy is truly one to watch and should be on Spotify. Amazing to record and amazing to listen to.
- The gigue treatment was executed well after weeks of hard work and I hope the added drama does the unbelievably spell-binding music justice.
- A wonderful 5 day holiday in Germany
Negatives:
- The huge let-down was the sub-par audio quality and this is the first thing I will tackle for the next video, learning how to properly mic up a piano.
- Not shooting nearly enough scenic shots, had to double up and repeat so many times, don’t go over the close-ups with a fine comb! A clearer storyboard and more shooting time would fix this.
I just want to say a quick thank you to Martin + Anna for the great hospitality. It definitely felt like a second home and I will be back there asap for longer, there are still 5 more English suites to record.
Until the next video.
Slater
