Moving On

BEGINNER’S EAR | 7.9.21

At my father’s funeral, my cousin Anja and I played the Largo from Bach’s double concerto for two violins. It’s not the most obvious piece for such an occasion. But we had no chance to rehearse before the ceremony and, being amateurs, it’s not like we have a huge repertoire up our sleeves. Besides, like so much of Bach, the music contains everything. It’s melancholic and playful, mystical and tender, aching and deeply consoling.

It’s also music that nudges you to keep moving. 

That’s because Bach’s Largo is full of suspensions. Suspensions are common in baroque music. They occur when one voice moves one step away from a consonant note, creating a temporary dissonance. Then the other voice takes a step to restore consonance, until the first one moves again into dissonance. In this game, the participants are perfectly equal, each one taking turns to act now as pull, now as dead weight. Depending on the piece, and maybe your own state of mind, you can hear different things in suspensions: erotic friction, friendly rivalry, equitable negotiation.

And baroque suspensions make fine grief counselors. For one thing, they validate pain by bringing those chafing dissonances into perfect equilibrium with the moments of radiant consonance. It’s not that one state is good and the other bad: both are necessary to breathe life into sound. And though you can hear the individual voice resist and acquiesce to change with each round of tug and slack, the underlying pulse stays perfectly even.

Speaking of moving on, Beginner’s Ear is turning its sights once again on in-person live music meditations. On August 15, August 29 and September 12 you can bliss out with meditation, music and birdsong on the grounds of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, NY. In addition, outdoor sessions are planned for nature preserves in three different states in the late summer and autumn of 2021, as well as special expanded programs around mindfulness, music and grief.

You can help support these and other deep listening projects with a one-time or recurring donation through this link. If you have been enjoying this free newsletter, this is also the way to support the work that goes into writing it. Donations are tax deductible and deeply appreciated.

Corinna 

LISTEN

Dive into this current of suspended animation in a Spotify playlist featuring music from Pergolesi's “Stabat Mater”; a gorgeous threesome by Telemann; a snippet of Mozart using suspensions in that inimitable smiling-through-tears way of his, and, for a 20th-century example, “Silentium” from Arvo Pärt’s “Tabula Rasa.”