Holding On and Letting Go
It’s 9 a.m. and I’m practicing Bach: the Fugue No. 4 in C-Sharp Minor.
The subject starts soft and low, with long, ponderous notes that feel more like a harmonic outline than a melody. But soon it evolves into a tapestry of musical lines moving at four different speeds.
(Here's my version, recorded in my living room.)
A collection of pencil markings from a month of practice are scattered across the pages: finger substitutions, circles, slashes, and arrows propelling the sound forward. Highlighting musical texture like topography on a map. Ties drawn like suspension bridges, measure across measure.
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