Composers on Mathematical Music
Subtext 3210797


                                                             0′00″
What I wondered was whether or not you would comment on
                           how you perceive the mind of        05″
Bach                            whether you perceive it
as                                         uh . . . . .        10″
. . . . . . . . . . . .                 a mind that was
capable of pure mathematics or a mind that                     15″
                 was tempered by emotions
      do you see I think that it’s              through        20″
the music we get an idea of the mind                and
I wondered what yours was.                                     25″

                                                               30″

                                                               35″

                     I                         it seems        40″
to me  when  I  thi  when I think  of  Bach  I  I’m not
so sure that I think of a mm                          a        45″
mind                                 as much as uh
                                                     uh        50″
                    as I think of a
                                                   a           55″
        a person
whose life                   was uh dedicated to music.      1′00″
                                          It it’s quite
uh                                                             05″
                                                I don’t
I don’t even know how                             h            10″
    how long his life was.
                But I uh              I do know that he        15″
had  many   children,   that   many   of   them  became
                    uh                 c           com-        20″
posers, that he was                       uh constantly
     uh writing music, because each uh                         25″
     each Sunday                              must have
uhm                                                            30″
been the occasion  for  another  first (laughs) perfor-
mance.                                              And        35″
besides that         one hears of his visits
                                        to uh other mu-        40″
sicians.                                   In    And at
that time                              it wa it was not        45″
easy to travel                              but I’v I’v
I’ve often thought of his             uh                       50″
leaving                             wherever he was
                              and going          uh            55″
north               to              to visit Buxtehude.
                                                             2′00″
                                 H       h      he
             he . . . . . . . . . . . uh           must        05″
                                     w         with all
those children,                     and with his admir-        10″
ation for other musicians                   and for his
own                               constant activity,           15″
                                       he must not have
taken any time to divide                   himself into        20″
                                                     on
the one hand a mind                    and on the other        25″
hand uh                uh emotions hmm?
He must have been all                                          30″
    h   altogether                                   uh
one person constantly active.                                  35″
                                  I think what
        uh . . . . . . .                                       40″
                   what it’s hard t ah what I find hard
to have explained is what it is                                45″
                         in the conception of the music
                                            which seems        50″
so mathematically intricate
      (interrupting)  I  I  think  mathematics  is  the        55″
wrong word.
                        uhm                                  3′00″

                             It  h  his       his              05″
    ah Bach’s music is characterized
         I believe                                             10″
                                                     by
                        uh . . . .                             15″
                      starting with a rather simple
                           uh                                  20″
    bu uh n simple’s the wrong word uhw
uh starting with a short                            mu-        25″
sical                                        uh
                                     motive.                   30″

And then                                             uh        35″
    through repetition and variation
        to                            of that motive           40″
                                                  to
    bring                                                      45″
    a . . . .                piece of music into exist-
ence.                                                          50″

                                 And                           55″
    And uh               uh Schoenberg teaching us this
                                  said uhm                   4′00″

when asked what variation was                                  05″
        he said variation is also               repeti-
tion                                                           10″
                                       with some things
changed                                                        15″
and some things not.
                                                               20″

                                      The uh                   25″
          other thing that characterizes uhm
                                Bach’s music                   30″
                  is that if you
                         . . .                                 35″

John Cage and Anne Gibson (in italics)



Composers on Mathematical Music: A Subtext Poem

Other Work by John Greschak

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