John Dalmas wrote:

>The eminent critic of Bach, W.J. Turner, once wrote: What makes it
>difficult to evaluate Bach's music correctly is Bach's virtuosity; but
>while the prodigious technical skill may interest and amaze the academic
>musician "with the score in his hands and his soul long defunct," it is
>valueless as music "unless it is as expressive as it is accomplished."

And I must most respectfully disagree with this, as someone who has,
in a very most way, tried to perform Bach on the guitar.  It does take
considerable technical skill on the part of the performer to match Bach's
compositional skill, but if you have the requisite chops, you will find (if
you have the soul of a Bach performer) that the expressive aspect of the
music is definitely there.

What looks on the page like a mass of sixteenth notes, with an occasional
run of eighths and a quarter or two, is really full to the brim with soul.
But you have to be able to find it and bring it out in performance; that
is the responsiblity of anyone who would venture into the temple (shall
we say) of Bach.

I think I have said before on this list that, in playing Bach in even my
own miserable, amateur way, I often have the eery feeling that the composer
himself is taking over my body and playing through me, which for me is an
experience I only get with Bach.  I suspect that others who are far more
skilled than I am get the same feeling.

Speaking of the guitar, since it is almost exclusively a solo instrument,
there are a great many great masters of solo works for it, but that is too
parochial a subject for me to get into here.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]