Counting

The French Overture yields to a little application of practice and concentration--and counting. The payoff for decyphering the Overture is the delightful simplicity of the dance movements that follow.

I realize now that one source of my original confusion when I started learning the Overture was Rosalyn Tureck's recording of the work, which I had listened to many times. She leaves out half of the second beat (cut time) in measure 3 and in measure 15. Her pedestal wobbles. But only a little. She creates the most wonderful ornaments.

The crack of dawn

Dawn -- and the dreadful drilling machine.

The prelude of that partita is like a brass bed--all knobs. Can't seem to smooth it out. Perhaps I can blame it on this cold I've caught. Or the fumes from the dreadful machine.

This prelude is the famous example of Bach's having written out double-dotted rhythm, without double dots, but rather with ties and rests. Neumann's argument, with which I agree, for the most part, is that because Bach can clearly write this rhythm when he wants to, we have no business assuming he wants double-dotted rhythm when he has not written it. But the whole world, it seems, has embraced double-dotting, at least for the time being. So often to do so makes a terrible hash of what should be a clear rhythmic combination of sixteenths and thirty-seconds, such as in the G minor prelude, WTC II.

It's a brilliant day. The boaters on the river buzz up and down. The cats snooze on either side of me. Several chores wait, but first I shall play through Bach's B minor partita--yes, B minor, that great huge French Overture thing. Whether piano is my forte, or blogging, that is the question.

Rosh Hashanah - Fresh Direct