.
Music
My musical interests focus on solo instruments from two great classical traditions, Indian and European.
Indian classical music
Sitar performance of Raag Jhinjoti (video, with Sudhir Pattar) at the 2007 New Jersey Durga Puja festival coming soon.
Baroque Piano
Goldberg Variations
For the past year and a half I have been working on the Goldberg variations by J.S. Bach, first popularized by Glenn Gould's seminal recording. I plan to post a personal recording of the Variations sometime within the next year.
There are unfortunately many challenges of playing this music on a conventional keyboard, since it was originally written for a dual harpsichord. Many difficult handcrossings are thus required.
The following are some quotes capturing the unique character of the Variations, which led me to attempt to learn the 32-piece set as a project piece. More info can be found at goldbergvariations.com.
"It is in a short music
which observes neither end nor beginning, music with neither real
climax nor real resolution, yet music in which there exists a
fundamental coordinating intelligence which we labeled "ego". It has,
then, unity through intuitive perception, unity born of craft and
scrutiny, mellowed by mastery achieved, and revealed to us here, as so
rarely in art, in the vision of subconscious design exulting upon a
pinnacle of potency. "
"All the thirty-two pieces are built upon the same thirty-two-note ground bass and its implied harmony (one per bar in the opening Aria), the rhythm of which is maintained throughout the work. The fact that the ground bass line is always decorated melodically, and never appears in what-might-be-called the 'original form', becomes one of the main features of the variations. In some movements, the theme acquires different harmonic flavours, while in others it is transferred to the high pitch range by the hand-crossing texture.
"The concept of symmetry is also reflected in the overall shape of the work, as the thirty-two pieces are grouped into two parts. The second part begins with No.16, which is a French Overture. This piece is strategically placed after No.15, a canon written in G minor, so that the musical impact of the overture is effectively amplified by the vivid contrast, as if it is a new beginning. Thus the concepts of 'number' and symmetry become the core of the work's structure and order."
"The 'Goldberg' Variations, when well played, is one of the best performance pieces in the keyboard repertoire. There is a strong visual component - thanks to the spectacular hand-crossings - that makes it fascinating to the spectator."
"There is something in it of Divinity more than the ear discovers. It is an Hieroglyphical and shadowed lesson of the whole World, and creatures of God; such a melody to the ear, as the whole World, well understood, would afford the understanding. In brief it is a sensible fit of that Harmony which intellectually sounds in the ears of God."
"All the thirty-two pieces are built upon the same thirty-two-note ground bass and its implied harmony (one per bar in the opening Aria), the rhythm of which is maintained throughout the work. The fact that the ground bass line is always decorated melodically, and never appears in what-might-be-called the 'original form', becomes one of the main features of the variations. In some movements, the theme acquires different harmonic flavours, while in others it is transferred to the high pitch range by the hand-crossing texture.
"The concept of symmetry is also reflected in the overall shape of the work, as the thirty-two pieces are grouped into two parts. The second part begins with No.16, which is a French Overture. This piece is strategically placed after No.15, a canon written in G minor, so that the musical impact of the overture is effectively amplified by the vivid contrast, as if it is a new beginning. Thus the concepts of 'number' and symmetry become the core of the work's structure and order."
"The 'Goldberg' Variations, when well played, is one of the best performance pieces in the keyboard repertoire. There is a strong visual component - thanks to the spectacular hand-crossings - that makes it fascinating to the spectator."
"There is something in it of Divinity more than the ear discovers. It is an Hieroglyphical and shadowed lesson of the whole World, and creatures of God; such a melody to the ear, as the whole World, well understood, would afford the understanding. In brief it is a sensible fit of that Harmony which intellectually sounds in the ears of God."
--Angela Hewitt (baroque soloist)
For more details, please see Angela Hewitt's variation-by-variation breakdown of the music at goldbergvariations.com.