The cicadas are screeching away, I saw one yesterday in the driveway. It must've been exhausted by its efforts at music, it has a long way to go. But I guess I'm being judgmental. The katy-did has a job here on earth, I shouldn't disparage it.
I spent some time with the Maestro this morning. Fuga 1 is starting to become a part of my hands and my mind. I love the process of digging in to a piece, as simple as it might be. The piece is in the key of C, it's your first key, no sharps or flats, ha!! That's what you think. In order to create interesting harmonic textures a composer does a thing called modulating, he or she will for a time change keys, meaning the tonal center of the piece goes to a new place. What might work here for a metaphor? Maybe it's how a good writer will have a main theme in a story, main characters that get most of the action, but there will also be a subtext or a minor theme possibly carried by other lesser characters, which serve to amplify the colors and overall sense of the work. In this numero uno fugue, we move along for four measures before there is an accidental (a sharp or flat) in this case an f#. That tells me I'm moving into the key of G, maybe, but then shortly after that there is a Bflat telling me I'm in F for a second, but neither really make it, it's just a delicate addition of color. I had to dig in starting at measure 10 where things start to get a bit tricky. He finally gets us to the key of A minor. But not before crawling around some diminished chords, V6 chords and some wicked dissonances.

As I was playing along this morning I realized for the millionth time that this music of the Maestro, as I will call him most often now, is completely abstract. It doesn't make you think of something else, it isn't supposed to conjure up the picture of a forest or a field, or a relationship breaking up. It just is as itself, is the expression, sui generis? I have to look that up. It's abstract and it doesn't mean anything, except itself. It isn't for anything, except it is creating a sound landscape that is quite lovely, intricate, rich in possibilties regarding understanding how it means itself. I will probably perform it sometime for my family, but if I only do it for myself that is okay too. I had a wonderful realization that I am actually having a relationship with Sebastian Bach, he is speaking to me with silent notes that were once shooting out of his mind; he saw the notes, he wrote them, he played them, he heard them when his children played them and so on. Now I am reading his mind and making his thoughts come to life in my living room, on my 30 year old Yamaha piano. I feel I owe it to the greatness of his being to pay attention as best I am able to the details of his music and to master at least a vague sense of these little soundscapes. It is different from looking at works of art, for the music is happening now, it's alive as if he comes to life again every time someone plays his music. I thank him everytime I finish practicing.
But what are some of the chords he throws in to this fugue? Need to brush off the theory book. And I need to revisit stories of his life.