{"id":9409,"date":"2023-07-05T12:49:11","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T16:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=9409"},"modified":"2023-07-17T20:49:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T00:49:10","slug":"bach-in-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/summer-2023-cat\/bach-in-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Bach In Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Illustration<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Adam Levin <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discover a new way of listening to music. Press play, close your eyes, and take an imaginative ride as you listen to\u2014and feel the emotions of\u2014one of J.S. Bach\u2019s masterpieces, performed on classical guitar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I invite you to join me on a ride, exploring the whimsical, romantic, nostalgic, spontaneous, ordered\u2014and at times, erratic, thunderous, and florid\u2014nature of the classical guitar and its repertoire. Our guide is baroque genius J.S. Bach, and our vehicle is his heroic Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006. Press play, close your eyes, and listen with me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The E note is struck as the first movement, Pr\u00e9lude<\/em>, begins, and we are catapulted upward through time, space, and harmony. Our hearts beat quickly as we listen. The performer aims for 84 beats per minute. Our heads bob to the quarter note. Notes flutter left and right in a peaceful and structured musical asteroid field; we are navigating between harmonies with a jazz-like bass line and a string of seemingly endless notes. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n

Adam Levin recommends listening to Eliot Fisk\u2019s recording of J.S. Bach\u2019s Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006 (tracks 26\u201331) on the album Johann Sebastian Bach: The Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin,<\/em> arranged for guitar, on the Musical Heritage Society label. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And don\u2019t miss Levin\u2019s own recording of the first movement of the suite, Prelude in E Major, BWV 1006a<\/em>, on his 2009 album, In the Beginnin<\/em>g, track 2.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Oxygen levels remain stable despite rapid fluctuations in altitude. But the apex is nearing, the tumult seems to be clearing ahead. The guitarist plucks the culminating bass E note ferociously, like a bald eagle swiping a squirrel from a tree branch with a single talon. The vibration is violently transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the classical guitar. It is transmitted to the sides and back of the instrument, resonating through the open air space in the body, finally producing a sultry, pristine, and resonant sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The note sails into our ears, and we feel an impulse to applaud. But, to our surprise, the first note of the next movement, Loure<\/em>, conjures the idea of a dancer moving sweetly, eloquently, and effortlessly. Then the third movement, Gavotte en Rondeau<\/em>, which suggests a second dancer, more upbeat and playful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the fourth and fifth movements, Menuets I and II<\/em>, the music becomes simple and repetitive, yet contemplative and expressive with little ornamental flourishes, and in Bour\u00e9e<\/em>, the music becomes exuberant, which persists through a jig-inspired final movement, Gigue<\/em>, until the E major chord is gallantly arpeggiated at the end of the work and we exhale, satiated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam Levin is an award-winning classical guitarist and artist\/teacher in classical guitar in äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾\u2019s Department of Music. He is also the founder and artistic director of the äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ Guitar Festival, which will hold its eighth edition from October 18\u201322, 2023. The festival demonstrates the universal nature of the guitar while uniting artists and audiences alike. For more on the festival, visit uriguitarfestival.org<\/a>. To follow Levin’s career, please visit adamlevinguitar.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illustration: Anthony Russo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Join music faculty member and award-winning classical guitarist Adam Levin on listening journey with J.S. Bach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":9739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summer-2023-cat","architecture-quad-angles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9409"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10283,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9409\/revisions\/10283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}