Latest / Brian Thomas / Empower U - Christina Fuhrmann - What Makes Bach’s Music So Great?

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Empower U - Christina Fuhrmann - What Makes Bach’s Music So Great? · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And Dana Davis Deep Dive tomorrow. Looking forward to those
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: as I always do. And of course it's gonna be
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  Speaker 1: a great empower you some and are taking place tomorrow night.
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  Speaker 1: It's virtual only, so you go to empower You America
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  Speaker 1: dot org. Just make sure you register ahead of time.
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  Speaker 1: Class time as always with the notable exception seven pm.
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  Speaker 1: So right there at home empower You America dot Org
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  Speaker 1: at seven pm where you're gonna hear doctor Christina Furman.
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  Speaker 1: She's the Chair Academic Students Department and Professor of Music
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  Speaker 1: History and Literature at Baldwin Wallace University. Also serves as
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  Speaker 1: Bach Yes, the composer editor of the Journal of the
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  Speaker 1: Raymond Schneider Bach Institute. Quite Jerman that one previously taught
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  Speaker 1: at Oberlin College Conservatory Music and Ashland University, where she
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  Speaker 1: was the twenty fifteen winner of the Tailor Excellence and
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  Speaker 1: Teaching Award. Also his experience of managing enter the Journal
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  Speaker 1: of Music Cology. She's a researcher, she's got an amazing
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  Speaker 1: history in music. Obviously, welcome to the program, doctor Furman.
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  Speaker 1: It's a real pleasure to have you on today. So
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  Speaker 1: Johann Sebastian Bach.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, A very beloved composer.
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  Speaker 1: By Manny, no question about it, of course, Well maybe not.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Of course some people don't know. I took I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: just under ten years a piano when I was a kid,
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  Speaker 1: and my mom was very, very into music and insisted
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  Speaker 1: that I at least get some education music. So here,
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  Speaker 1: at age sixty, I can still read it. But it's
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  Speaker 1: a hunt and peck reality for me. I got a
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  Speaker 1: piano again, and so I'm trying to reteach myself. And
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  Speaker 1: I started with Missus Tobin, my original music teacher, and
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  Speaker 1: the old books I still have from her. So I'm
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  Speaker 1: relearning muscle memory and music. But I remember Bach quite
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  Speaker 1: well as well as Mozart and others. But the point
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  Speaker 1: of this one, this seminar tomorrow night Box Music. What
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  Speaker 1: makes it so great? Why is he a notable standout
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  Speaker 1: when we can all go with you know, what aboutout Mozart?
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  Speaker 1: What about Beethoven? And your impression? Why is Box so great?
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  Speaker 2: Boy?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it's really a tough question because I think
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  Speaker 3: it does depend on the person. But I talk tomorrow
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  Speaker 3: is going to focus a little bit on how he
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  Speaker 3: both appeals to us in terms of our worldly, everyday
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  Speaker 3: lives with music like the boc cello suites or like
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  Speaker 3: the piano music that you're talking about. But then he
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  Speaker 3: also has amazing sacred works that I think really appeal
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  Speaker 3: to people of any faith, just the idea of the
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  Speaker 3: connection with the higher spirit and really beautiful works. And
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  Speaker 3: I think also Bach is someone who's really rewarding to study.
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  Speaker 3: We have so many people who study Bach when they're performing.
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  Speaker 3: We have composers and jazz artists and popular musicians who
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  Speaker 3: love to think about Bach. And there's just so many
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  Speaker 3: layers in Bach. I think is part of what makes
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  Speaker 3: him so appealing. There's something for everyone there. It's very
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  Speaker 3: automatically appealing with beautiful melodies, but it also has incredibly
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  Speaker 3: intense counterpoint and things that can be picked apart and analyzed,
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  Speaker 3: and something new comes up every time you look at it.
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  Speaker 2: So I think he's someone who rewards study. And then
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  Speaker 2: I think he's also.
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  Speaker 3: Someone who you can put on when you want something
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  Speaker 3: very emotional and moving, but you can also put on
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  Speaker 3: when you just want something steady in the background. He's
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  Speaker 3: not sort of demanding your attention like maybe at Tchaikowsky
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  Speaker 3: might be.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean I think about music theory, there's a
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  Speaker 1: certain there's a real science behind music, and it's a
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  Speaker 1: very complex science. But I supposing understanding that allows you
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  Speaker 1: to go on these various avenues that Bach was so
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  Speaker 1: brilliant and going down like, I didn't realize that work together. Wow,
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  Speaker 1: listen to that. That is highly unusual. Doesn't that come
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  Speaker 1: down to really the science of music?
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  Speaker 2: Yes?
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  Speaker 3: And I think that the Baroque period when Bach was
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  Speaker 3: living in the early eighteenth century was an era where
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  Speaker 3: they were very interested in the science of music, and
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  Speaker 3: not only the idea of how do you tune instruments,
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  Speaker 3: for example, but the idea of how do you actually
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  Speaker 3: elicit certain emotions? And there was something known as the
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  Speaker 3: doctrine or science of the affections or emotions, where they
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  Speaker 3: really thought about how do we make people feel angry
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  Speaker 3: or how do we make people feel sad? And they
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  Speaker 3: came up with all sorts of musical ways that you
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  Speaker 3: could elicit these emotions, and so you will feel that
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  Speaker 3: in box music as well.
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  Speaker 1: Did they just like intuitively recognize that, oh my god,
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  Speaker 1: d minor is really a sad key or something, or
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  Speaker 1: was there some sort of scientific study behind it, like listen,
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  Speaker 1: you know, room full of people. What is your reaction
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  Speaker 1: when you hear this particular song in this key and
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  Speaker 1: have them write it down. I can't imagine. Was that
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  Speaker 1: scientific when Bach was out about in the late sixteen
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  Speaker 1: hundreds and early seventeen hundreds.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, interestingly, I think that it was a combination.
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  Speaker 2: There were a lot of treatises written on here.
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  Speaker 3: If we have, for example, a descending line that tends
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  Speaker 3: to feel sad, if we have very fast repeated notes
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  Speaker 3: that tends to feel angry, and you know, I think even.
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  Speaker 2: Today when we listen, let's say, to film music.
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  Speaker 3: Composers are always drawing on what people think of as
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  Speaker 3: sad or what people think of as angry, and then
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  Speaker 3: that just becomes so ingrained that whenever you hear that,
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  Speaker 3: then that's the emotion that you feel.
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  Speaker 1: Well, one thing I've noticed about these you know, amazing composers,
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  Speaker 1: of course Bach right up there is there mastery of
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  Speaker 1: so many different instruments, and I just kind of wonder,
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  Speaker 1: you know, were these you know, the people that immediately
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  Speaker 1: come to mind, the motarts, the box of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Were they all like child prodigies that they could just
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  Speaker 1: like have this understanding and create, you know, symphonic works
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  Speaker 1: with all these different musical elements that you know, the woodwinds,
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  Speaker 1: the brass, being able to write music for each and
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  Speaker 1: every individual type of instrument. I just that to me,
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  Speaker 1: I find that to be one of the most amazing
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  Speaker 1: elements about these storied musicians or storied composers. How how
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  Speaker 1: is it that a young person like Back could be
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  Speaker 1: introduced to that and have such a profound grasp of
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  Speaker 1: all of it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's really incredible.
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  Speaker 3: And for Back, he was born into essentially a family business.
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  Speaker 3: Everybody in his family was a musician. He was taught
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  Speaker 3: from a very young age and at the time you
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  Speaker 3: were really supposed to be both a composer and a performer.
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  Speaker 3: Nobody could really conceive of just being a composer or
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  Speaker 3: just being a performer. And so he was taught from
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  Speaker 3: a very young age many different instruments and also composition
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  Speaker 3: right along with that. And so I think that's something
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  Speaker 3: that was really important for him to develop.
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  Speaker 1: That skill, Okay, And that's a great way of looking
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  Speaker 1: at it. It was a trade. He was an apprentice
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  Speaker 1: in a family of tradesmen. They just happened to be
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  Speaker 1: musical tradesmen, and so of course he was inundated with
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  Speaker 1: it and trained on it from a very young age.
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  Speaker 1: Just I guess if I had been only a musician
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  Speaker 1: from my childhood forward, I might too have been able
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  Speaker 1: to accomplish this type of thing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it essentially was considered sort of a trade.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, there were also just many jobs where
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  Speaker 3: you were constantly composing and constantly playing. I mean, he
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  Speaker 3: would be an organist for a church, he would have
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  Speaker 3: to play every service, and or.
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  Speaker 2: He would be a court composer.
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  Speaker 3: He would have to play what they wanted to perform
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  Speaker 3: at the court. So it wasn't like it is today
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  Speaker 3: where we're just sort of waiting for the inspiration to
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  Speaker 3: hit us. It was, oh, tomorrow, I have to have
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  Speaker 3: this piece written and performed.
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  Speaker 1: How about that now, I guess I'm curious to know,
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  Speaker 1: in your perception, giving your extensive and impressive musical background,
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  Speaker 1: doctor Furman, the importance of young people learning how to play,
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  Speaker 1: at least and instrument. I know it benefited me in
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  Speaker 1: ways that I don't know that I can necessarily articulate,
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  Speaker 1: But I feel as though I did really truly benefit
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  Speaker 1: from my musical education. Do you consider that to be
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  Speaker 1: extremely important too, and how does it move beyond just
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  Speaker 1: music learning an instrument.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I think it is so incredibly important that we
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  Speaker 3: have music in the schools and music for kids' lives.
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  Speaker 2: It's such a great expression for kids.
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  Speaker 3: It's a way to, you know, give their creative side
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  Speaker 3: something to do. It's also very much about discipline and
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  Speaker 3: seeing what happens when you are practicing consistently, and then
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  Speaker 3: you learn how to play. If you're in a school setting,
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  Speaker 3: it's about learning how to play with other people and
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  Speaker 3: learning how to be part of a group. And then
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  Speaker 3: I think it can be a great way to learn
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  Speaker 3: about different cultures in different times. It's such a great
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  Speaker 3: connection to other people around the world to learn their music.
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  Speaker 3: That's often a really great way to, you know, just
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  Speaker 3: be more of a citizen of the world. And there
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  Speaker 3: certainly have been a lot of studies that have shown
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  Speaker 3: that when you have music for kids, they tend to
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  Speaker 3: excel in other aspects as well. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 3: connection between music and math. Let's say, I can't tell
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  Speaker 3: you how many musicians I know who go into it,
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  Speaker 3: so there certainly seems to be a connection.
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  Speaker 1: There I think it's a right brain left brain connection.
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  Speaker 1: You need both when you're when you're playing a musical instrument.
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  Speaker 1: And finally, before we part company and remember it's it's
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  Speaker 1: tomorrow night, seven pm. Empower Youamerica dot org virtual class
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  Speaker 1: only so you can hear the brilliant doctor Firman talk
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  Speaker 1: about the importance of this work, but also the importance
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  Speaker 1: of classical music. I know a lot of young people
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  Speaker 1: are really not interested in classical music. You know, the
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  Speaker 1: Baroque period isn't really high on their hip hop list.
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  Speaker 1: So is classical music I think subset of the broader
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  Speaker 1: musical study. Is it still important for everyone?
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  Speaker 2: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: I would say absolutely. And as a matter of fact,
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  Speaker 3: if you started looking at who Bach has influenced and
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  Speaker 3: who has thought about Bach, it's an incredible range of musicians.
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  Speaker 3: Musicians for example, who say that they listen to Bach
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  Speaker 3: every day. There are pop musicians who are really influenced
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  Speaker 3: by Bach. There was a whole movement in the nineteen
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  Speaker 3: sixties at the psychedelic rock with baroque pop, and so
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  Speaker 3: I think it's something that's very much ingrained into our society,
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  Speaker 3: even though we're not really always aware of it.
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  Speaker 1: She would be great again tomorrow night, seven pm. A
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  Speaker 1: Poweroamerica dot org makes sure you register. Heck, you can
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: go over there and register right now. Just make sure
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  Speaker 1: you log in at seven for Doctor Furman and a
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  Speaker 1: discussion of box music and what makes it so great. Doctor.
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  Speaker 1: It's been a real pleasure to having here on the
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  Speaker 1: morning show. I thank you for your time this morning,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll look forward to the seminar tomorrow night at
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  Speaker 1: seven pm.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I hope to see.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: You there my pleasure. It's eight fifty to fifty five
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  Speaker 1: KRCD Talk Station Don't Go Away fifty five KRC