689. I have to digress and say something about the Empress. The Empress did not like Bach's music. She had distinct memories of her own music teacher from when she was a child, back in the days when Bach and his fugues were all the rage. "Look at this music", she said, "All of the voices are exactly equal, it is as if Bach had no respect for the aristocracy, to him a simple peasant is as important as a king, all the voices are exactly equal." she though Bach was a subversive.
690. Like so often happens with musical movements, when the Empress was a child court attitudes toward the formal intricately fugal music of Bach was becoming outdated. As a young woman she remembered distinctly the introduction of a new style of music in which light melodious pretty fare took the place of the older turgid works.
691. But among those old music teachers, the mastery of Bach's music continued to be the bar all students had to measure up to. This expectation was rigid, and come to think about it, still exists today. How many modern cellists have given up in despair shipwrecked on the unaccompanied cello suites, how many pianists today have nervous breakdowns over the Well-tempered Clavier. But the great performers could play those works effortlessly.
692. Everyone knows that Yo-yo Ma can play the hardest Bach cello suites while joking with friends and also balancing his check book, and we are told that Glenn Gould could play those Bach fugues, even the ones with six flats, while at the same time filing his fingernails and doing tricks with a yo-yo. But when they did these things they were not only displaying their love of Bach but also their contempt for lesser mortals.
690. Like so often happens with musical movements, when the Empress was a child court attitudes toward the formal intricately fugal music of Bach was becoming outdated. As a young woman she remembered distinctly the introduction of a new style of music in which light melodious pretty fare took the place of the older turgid works.
691. But among those old music teachers, the mastery of Bach's music continued to be the bar all students had to measure up to. This expectation was rigid, and come to think about it, still exists today. How many modern cellists have given up in despair shipwrecked on the unaccompanied cello suites, how many pianists today have nervous breakdowns over the Well-tempered Clavier. But the great performers could play those works effortlessly.
692. Everyone knows that Yo-yo Ma can play the hardest Bach cello suites while joking with friends and also balancing his check book, and we are told that Glenn Gould could play those Bach fugues, even the ones with six flats, while at the same time filing his fingernails and doing tricks with a yo-yo. But when they did these things they were not only displaying their love of Bach but also their contempt for lesser mortals.
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