The Greatest Composer of
all Time
In human history, a handful of names glow
like supernovas, burning brighter than all other individuals who have ever
existed. Leonardo Da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, J.S. Bach.
I've been working on arranging for guitar, Bach's
Partita No 1 for Violin. I am working straight from the violin score, rather
than playing a transcription. It's the Bach-Gesellschaft (authenticated)
edition. The violin score, in the key of b minor, is directly readable on the
guitar (although an octave below the violin, I believe).
The octave transposition has no detriment, to my ear, at least.
As I am more and more absorbed in this magnificent work,
I begin to feel like it is the greatest masterwork of all human creation. So it
is with Bach. The hardest thing is to decide which work is the most beautiful.
Any single composition of his thousands would be enough to secure the
everlasting reputation of its composer. Any single one. Then I start to think of
countless others of his masterpieces, and I get swallowed up in the enormity of
his genius. The Lute Suites, The Magnificat, all the Contatas, The Well Tempered
Clavier, Books 1 and 2. The Goldberg Variations. Oceans of organ music. The
Flute Sonatas. The
In Bach's works, the musical intent is often so
clear, so unforced, and so fitting.
Every idea is so natural, and so pleasing, you think there must be
thousands of other pieces using this motif - yet you can't think of a single
one. How could he have come up with such a beautiful idea, I wonder, and have
just used it this once, here in this courante or allemande? Yet, every piece is
original, different from all the others, consistent within itself. Each
piece is fascinating, timeless, and totally captivating. I cannot hear a piece
by Bach and carry on a conversation at the same time, as his music commands my
attention and totally occupies my mind when I hear it - or even think of it.
Now as I study the Partita No 1 for
violin - perfectly playable on the guitar with no modification, and as I caress
each note, I feel at one with the greatest musical genius in history.