Friday, June 5th
Friday, June 5, 6:00 to 7:15 pm, CIM Room 113 - Jonathan Leathwood, guitar
The Song in the Dance: Bach’s Melodies
The pianist and critic Charles Rosen wrote of Bach’s ability “to sustain the tension of an ornamental line or arabesque at greater length than any other composer before Chopin.” The guitarist’s Bach repertoire contains extraordinary melodies, often unassumingly embedded in slower dances such as allemandes and sarabandes. This talk examines how Bach sustains melodic tension over long spans and how that capacity shapes both lyrical and more continuous textures. We will consider where this expansive flow comes from and how guitarists can learn to shape it in practice and performance, extending these ideas to faster movements where melodic continuity is less immediately apparent.