The CDR is 50 years old! On the occasion of this festive event, Hans Jacobi composed a musical congratulation: No Day Without Bach - 50 years CDR. The composer explains what he learned from Bach: 'When I was eight years old, I heard organ music from Bach for the first time: a wall of sound that I couldn't make anything of. But I had the will to listen through that wall, as I later wanted to crack
… the code at Schönberg and Boulez. I quickly became familiar with Bach's music. When I was eleven I heard the St Matthew Passion for the first time, and around sixteen I even had the score of Die Kunst der Fuge within reach on the beach. Perhaps even more important were the countless Bach chorales my father played as an amateur organist. Bach's musical language is more a harmonic than a contrapuntal language: the harmonic wave action helps the listener to understand the intricate play of lines. Bach's chorales are an ideal learning experience in that respect. There are solid rules for this craft. However, there are so many that they regularly get in each other's way. In that respect, you learn from Bach not only how to apply the rules, but also how to break them. No Day Without Bach is an ironic, but also serious piece. I try not only to get closer to Bach here, but also to keep my distance. Our time is simply not Bach's. For example, my piece is deliberately diatonic: here only the notes of E flat sound great. However, I always let the thematic material be heard in different positions. In this way I try - in a different way than Bach - to create color differences. And those color differences help the listener to understand the structure and architecture of the piece. Just think, if Bach had composed this piece, he would go from E flat major to B flat major, then to C minor, etc. Of course I could have followed this plan too. But then it would have been a style copy, and not something of myself. ' For the sheet music: see www.hansjacobi.nl. (Thanks to Rob Quist: www.songselect.net) (HJ)more
