For some reasons I like flying: sometimes it belongs to unexpected experiences, of any kind. A few days ago it belonged to a musical experience. I was trying to sleep and get in sync with the italian time and I decided to listen to Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier: the variety of themes, the sober sound of the piano solo, the deepness of textures can have both effects, of helping my sleep or exciting my brain.
But the best musical experience is when you can gain both of them, discovering unexpected connections between the voices in the fugues, or between the fugue and the preceding prelude, or between two different prelude & fugue when your eyes are closing and your mind and thoughts are pushed far away from their original position.
I decided to listen to my favorite edition, the one played magnificently by Rosalin Tureck. She is the only one I’m never bored to listen to, the only one who had been able to infuse a different flavor to each part of this work without losing an unbelievably strong control of the overall unity: she shows you both Bach’s didactic abilities and his genius. Her sound is so rich, deep, layered and discreet, like nobody else I’ve ever heard. And, most amazingly, this opinion is solid since many years.
What is even more exciting than a simple listening, is that the sound of the airplane engines was adding a disturbing layer to my experience; a regular, strong continuos sound in the background that sometimes was completely covering the iPod earphones. Nonetheless, I was completely surprised when out from that sound the themes of the fugues were sometimes showing up, stronger than the buzz, sharp, elegant and clearly audible.
I was listening to bach + airplane, an odd mixture of turbines and piano, similar to some ambient music but extraordinarily accidental. The regularity of the engines was relaxing while the bach motives were imaginary spots of light in the dark. Floating in the mood between awake and sleep I was trying to read a message through the lights, where the intensity of the music was the intensity of the light, where the tone was the color. I didn’t read anything, at the end, but I often think about hidden codes in people’s life.
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