Fried Miriam, Bach, Partita No.3 in Emaj

Sequence published on 12/2/21

Composer : Johann Sebastian Bach

Year of composition : 1720

Artistic period : Baroque

Musical category : Partita

Academy : Academy October 24 to 31, 2021

Master(s) : Miriam Fried

Student : Edith Cnockaert

Instrument(s) played :

Violin

"no matter how difficult the piece may be, it's a character of it that you wanted to communicate, not the fact that it's difficult." Miriam Fried

About the Violon class of Johann Sebastian Bach's work on the Partita_No.3_in_Emaj BWV 1006

Master class de Violon, Johann Sebastian Bach | Partita_No.3_en_Mi_majeur

"The class begins with the master saying that the prelude, as an opening movement, is an invitation to listen. In this sense, she says that she would like to hear more exuberance. Then, she affirms that this prelude is, basically, perpetual motion, and she is interested in highlighting the importance of breathing on the violin. She mainly thinks about exhaling, and suggests that the student mark, on the score, where to exhale.
Later on, it is very interesting how the master knows that it is a lot of work to play this piece, but she does not want to hear that; she wants to hear the message: “I want a message. Listen to how much fun this is."" To achieve this, the student must work hard to improve her bowing: “Let go, you know, allow your weight to rest on your bow and make sure that you're moving from your arm, and that your hand is transmitting the information but not initiating it.""
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"Focusing on a difficult aspect of this piece, Miriam Fried talks about the importance of being able to group and make sense of the enormous number of notes that must be played: “…if you combine these notes into units, and then you combine the units into longer units, you know you are making sense out of the notes. Nobody listens to the individual notes…and that's what I'm looking for. Not only identifying the groups, but identifying what's interesting about each one of them”.
Fried points out an error made by the student, which is that before each change of harmony, she always plays the first note of that section longer, “the essence of what is happening keeps switching, and yet you use the same tool to show it,"" therefore suggesting different possibilities so you don't always repeat the same thing.
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What we learn in this Violon Master class

-The prelude is basically perpetual motion
-The importance of breathing
-There should be a message
-Importance to feel the wight of the right arm
-Sometimes, it should sound lighter and clearer. And this is a job that is done with the bow
-It´s importante to try to play Bach with the baroque bow

About Johann Sebastian Bach work

"The sonatas and partitas reflect Bach's skill as a performer and composer. Only someone involved with the violin as a performer could know its possibilities and limitations so well. The works demonstrate a level of technical and musical mastery that previous composers had not come close to and, in fact, remain one of the pinnacles of violin literature. The genres chosen by Bach allow Musical variety of astonishing scope, ranging from densely crafted counterpoints to graceful court dances composed in a style marked by rhythmic and melodic invention, underpinned by complex harmonic shifts. The partitas offer a sequence of dance-inspired movements, including dances rarely found in Bach. "

BWV 1006 begins with an exuberant Prelude, one of Bach's most famous instrumental compositions and which he recast for organ and orchestra in the Cantata, BWV 29. The sequence of dances that follow omit the Sarabanda, replacing it with the Loure, a slow and elegant version of a giantess. In Menuet II, the interpreter sustains a hum (B natural) for three measures, giving the court dance a folkloric air, another imaginative touch of this inventive and original composer who finds himself, paradoxically, in the relentless limitation of writing for a solo instrument.