Music School Students and Faculty: Invention!
Sunday, April 11, 3:00 p.m., All Souls Church, West Village Meeting House, West Brattleboro, VT
The Inventions and Sinfonias of Bach contain some of the most imaginative material in all of music, and give scope for unlimited expressions of style and delivery. Music School faculty and students collaborate to perform these small gems, in ways both traditional and surprising.
Tickets $15, $8 Youth, Free to BMC Music School Students under 18.
Advance purchase by calling the BMC at 802-257-4523
STORY:
INVENTION! BACH’S PERFECT MINIATURES
What is an Invention and why are 13 of the area’s top musicians along with 6 of their students gathering to play them?
On Sunday, April 11 at 3 p.m., the public is warmly invited to hear the 15 2-part Inventions of J.S. Bach, performed by faculty of the Brattleboro Music Center with guest student performers, at All Souls Church in West Brattleboro, VT. This concert will also feature a selections from the 3-part Inventions, also know as Sinfonia, of J.S. Bach.
The Inventions and Sinfonias is a collection of short pieces Bach wrote for the musical education of his young pupils in both composition, technical development, and above all, musical expression. These are perhaps the finest examples of music ever written for this purpose, and probably because of this, they became very popular among Bach's pupils and have remained justly loved by musicians in every time and place ever since they were written.
Consider the reaction to playing the Bach Inventions by some of the afternoon’s participating musicians.
“As I played through the collection in preparation for this concert, I realized that they were really good for my head!” says pianist Bruce Griffin, who is playing four of the Inventions on this program. “I found myself relaxed by the meditative harmonies and the wonderful process of working them out.”
“It feels like playing a puzzle that has been solved perfectly” says pianist Luba Lyschinsky. “Their variety and structure are fascinating to dive into.” Pianist Susan Dedell finds them “wholesome in the best sense of the word. They express such a wide variety of emotions ranging from joy to despair, and they do this within a span of slightly over a minute. There is no excessive, self-indulgent musical language to be found in any of them. Playing and hearing them is a real musical therapy session.”
Those playing transcriptions of them on other instruments find a similar gratification. “I feel cleansed when I play them,” remarks cellist Judith Serkin, “plus they are really fun to play!” Violinist Peggy Spencer agrees wholeheartedly. “Playing these Inventions as transcriptions for violins give us violinists more Bach to play -- and the more Bach, the better!”
Trumpet player Dan Farina comments that he loves playing them because of the visceral way the rhythmic pulse of them locks into his body. “Each note and pulse is in exactly the right place. It is an awesome feeling!” This awesome feeling is shared by violinist Kathy Andrew, who says simply, ““I love playing the 2-part Inventions on violins, or in combination with viola and cello. They are very beautiful compositionally, use pure and simple counterpoint in a melodic way, as Bach does so well.”
Rarely lasting for more than a minute or two, each of the Inventions is written in a different key, with a specific melodic theme that is completely explored and developed in an expressive but concise fashion. Some of them are sprightly and joyful, some rush in a darkly dramatic manner, others are calmly or nobly reflective, and a some even reflect a sense of soulful anguish.
Pianists Susan Dedell, Bruce Griffin, Luba Lyschinsky, Raquel Moreno, Vladimir Odonokh, and Chongyo Shin will begin the afternoon by playing all fifteen of the 2-Part Inventions in their original form as written for keyboard. In the second half of the program, the Inventions will display their adaptability to other instruments, as duos of violins, flutes and even trumpets give a glimpse of the Invention’s ability to display structure and musical imagination even when played on instruments for which they were not written. Violinists Kathy Andrew and Peggy Spencer, cellists Sabine Rhyne and Judith Serkin, flutists Robin Matathias and Alex Ogle, and trumpeter Dan Farina are joined by talented BMC students Kai Ming Pu, Eva Fabian, violin; Stephanie LeQuier, Amy vanLoon, flute; Tim Hueber, trumpet in 2 part arrangements of the Inventions for a variety of instrument combinations.
The BMC faculty will also give a brief glimpse into the more complex world of the 3-part Inventions as pianists Chongyo Shin, Susan Dedell and Vladimir Odonokh play from their personal favorites. Further exploring the 3-Part Inventions (also known as Sinfonia), a string trio comprised of Kathy Andrew, Peggy Spencer, and Judith Serkin will play four of them as transcribed for string trio by Serkin’s grandfather, Marlboro Music Festival cofounder Adolph Busch.
The Inventions concert on April 11, 3pm at All Souls Church in W. Brattleboro, VT, is one of the concluding events in the year long celebration of the 100th birthday of Blanche Moyse, the founder of the New England Bach Festival and Brattleboro Music Center, who made the study of the works of J.S. Bach her life’s passion. Tickets $15, $8 youth, free to BMC Music School students under 18.
Bach Inventions Provide Inspiration for Brattleboro Music Center - River Gallery School Collaboration
Leave it to that greatest of composers, Johann Sebastian Bach, to transform preparatory musical exercises into miniature gems of color and imagination.
And color and imagination are precisely what these pieces calls forth in those who play and hear them. It was these words that inspired a rather unusual and wholly exciting collaboration between the Brattleboro Music Center and the River Gallery School.
On April 11 at 3 p.m., a concert featuring the Two-Part Inventions of J.S. Bach will also present a gallery of artwork inspired by these astonishing little pieces, as local artists engage in a sensory exploration of these well-loved musical miniatures of Bach.
Susan Dedell, Artistic Director of the BMC’s Blanche Moyse Centennial Year, had long planned a concert featuring the fifteen 2-part Inventions of J.S. Bach as the centerpiece.
“As I played through these adorable pieces of Bach in preparation for planning this concert, I was forcibly reminded of their distinct individuality. Each one is a separate and complete musical painting,” says Dedell. “Bach is a visionary artist of unbounded imagination and spirit who is also a unique architectural genius.”
It struck Dedell that the terms that musicians use to describe the musical components of the Inventions -- gesture, color, affect -- are the same words that are used by visual artists in describing their work.
A call to Lydia Thompson, Artistic Director of the River Gallery School, led to an animated conversation about the possibility of a collaboration between the Brattleboro Music Center and River Gallery School. Thompson suggested that River Gallery faculty member Jason Alden would be the perfect person to lead a workshop exploring the connection between concepts of composition.
“Jason responded in such a way that made my heart sing,” says Dedell. “He immediately translated terms from the musical idiom into those of the visual artist and proposed a project involving artists from the area, professionals as well as students.”
“My primary interest in painting is how to arrange the many elements of shape, color, gesture and form into an engaged and unified composition,” comments Jason Alden, who teaches Life Drawing and Figure Painting at the River Gallery School. “I try to be sensitized to how shapes and colors feel on the canvas, how they relate to each other, and how they participate in the overall composition.”
Dedell thinks that Alden’s experience of art is aptly similar to the approach of J.S. Bach in his writing of counterpoint. As one hears in the Inventions, every melodic phrase and rhythmic impulse is full of color and character, and yet fits into a harmonious whole.
“It is not our intent in this project to ascribe an overly specific meaning or equivalent color to each of the Inventions -- rather Jason and I are curious about mutual concepts concerning the emotional impact of color and gesture,” explains Dedell.
For this collaborative project, artists first gathered to listen to all fifteen 2-part Inventions. In a darkened room at the River Gallery School, the sounds of Bach fell into the evening silence. “This is one of those moments that I won’t forget in a hurry,” says Dedell. “Merging our two worlds with Bach as a medium: it doesn’t get much better.”
Responding to music as an inspiration for visual art is an interesting exploration for Alden as well as many of the other participating artists. Alden comments, “I always begin painting from life, faithfully recording the objects onto the canvas. After I have more or less accurately translated the three dimensional forms and space into two dimensional shapes, I begin a series of negotiations: "What if you were a little more purple, and what if you were a little taller and more bell-shaped, and what if you were covered in stripes?" In this way things can visually adapt to the presence and influence of other things until everything is getting along reasonably well. This usually means that the painting looks a whole lot different then when it began but feels more clarified.”
How does a musical color and shape feel on the canvas, or on paper, or with paper, or with clay?
“I don’t know,” says Susan Dedell, “but I sure am curious. Michelangelo said, ‘A man paints with his brain and not with his hands.’ The state of mind which gives birth to creativity comes from no prefabricated concept of correct intention, but rather straight from the heart.”
The Two Part Inventions of J.S. Bach, as well as a selection of the 3 Part Inventions, will be presented on April 11 at 3 p.m. at the West Village Meeting House (All Souls Church) in West Brattleboro, VT. The art inspired by these pieces will also be on display at that time.
Members of the BMC Faculty will play Bach’s Inventions in their complete original form for keyboard as well as in a variety of adaptations for other instruments. Participating faculty include pianists Chongyo Shin, Bruce Griffin, Vladimir Odinokikh, Luba Lischynsky, Susan Dedell, Raquel Moreno; violinists Kathy Andrew and Peggy Spencer; cellist Judith Serkin; flutists Alex Ogle and Robin Matathias; and trumpeter Dan Farina. Also playing on the program are BMC students Kai Ming Pu and Eva Fabian, violin; Amy van Loon and Stephanie LeQuier, flute; Tim Hueber, trumpet; and Hannah Ruhl, piano.
Tickets $15, $8 Youth, Free to BMC Music School Students under 18.
Advance purchase by calling the BMC at 802-257-4523
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