November 18, 2006: Bach as Coltrane; Coltrane as Bach

I am in the final stages of working on the B-flat (first) partita from Part I of Johann Sebastian Bach's Clavierübung. I have worked my way through all of the "French Suites" and about half of the "English;" but these really go to the next level. What I have discovered is that, while nothing (or at least almost nothing) about Bach can ever be called "routine," there is at least a bit of predictability in the English and French suites, while the movements of the partita just keep going and going into new territory, sustaining the attention over longer intervals of time (and challenging the performer to get the mind around committing the whole thing to memory). Coltrane lovers know what is going on here. The partita movements are in the same league as (or perhaps anticipate the league of) Coltrane improvisations, based on an explicit (if not always familiar) foundation and then quickly spinning away from the foundation and orbiting around it for awesomely long periods of time. Coltrane also shared with Bach the ability to take something that was very (if not too) familiar (perhaps so much so that people had grown sick of it, as in Mary Martin singing "My Favorite Things") and turn it into something that was both the same and very much other (not to mention on a much more epic scale: the quartet performance of "My Favorite Things" recorded in Paris on November 17, 1962 clocked in at almost 24 minutes). I check into some of my Coltrane background material for any mention of Bach, but I could not find anything. On the other hand Coltrane was never one for talking very much about he did. I recall seeing Stravinsky on television the night that "The Flood" was broadcast; and, after a few routine sentences, he said, "I don't want to tell you more; I just want to play you more." Trane would have understood; and my guess is that Bach would have, too.