Songs without Words

I’m finally learning the C major Sonata for solo violin.  As much as I’ve always wanted to learn this piece, I find it so frustating at this point when the way I want to interpret Bach has strayed so far from the way my teacher wishes me to.  I find the way that people seem to become attached to one particular way of resolving the impossibilities that Bach sets forth to be a bit annoying.  Quite frankly, no one alive is Bach, not even scholars.  I have immense respect for Bach, and that is why I want to play his pieces in such a way that I feel captures the essence of his genius, rather than sticking by “rules” that can lead the pieces in such a direction that they seem almost hollow and rigid.  The imaginative parts, I think, should be played as if they were being made up on the spot.  Once upon a time, there was a very advanced form of “freestyling.”  It was called the cadenza, and it was preceded by embellishments to the bassline and melody.  In the strict quarter meter, which I agree with, the thirty-seconds should be allowed to have a life of their alone.  And the dotted rhythm, in Baroque times, often indicated triplets.  The mysterious introduction sounds much better in this 9/8-like interpretation rather than the coarse, militaristic double-dotting that makes this sound like court music.