5/28/08

Correction, Kosman!

In your lovely review of Simone Dinnerstein’s inventive interpretation of Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations, one thing needs to be corrected. (By the way, I don’t really like to correct columns on papers’ websites—it just feels dirtier than if we did it here, in a more niche environment.) Anyway, you said that:

[Her rendering] was most memorable in the opening Aria, the spare, richly ornamented melody that forms the basis of the entire 90-minute work.

...when everyone knows that the melody isn’t the basis, but rather its bass line, harmonic progression and rhythmic structure.

Though there are numerous similar and more in-depth analyses, the earliest account of this (that I could find, anyway) was made by Wanda Landowska, Landowska on Music (New York: Stein & Day, 1964), p. 215.

Just saying.
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2 comments:

Joshua Kosman said...

D'oh. You couldn't be more right. Well just-said.

Empiricus said...

No worries, bro. Keep up the good.