oracne - Victoria Janssen (oracne) wrote,
oracne - Victoria Janssen
oracne

I am a viola da gamba

Singing Bach makes me feel like a viola da gamba. I'm the bow and I'm the body. Stroke, stroke, stroke, each stroke swelling and falling, swelling and falling. Only it's not just individual strokes, each is part of a line, and the line strokes, too, and swells and falls, mezza di voce in both short and long. You could divide each note in Bach down into infinity, down to molecules and smaller, and each particle would still be sung mezza di voce.

And then there are suspensions where you hang in space and time in glorious dissonance, for long seconds that, in reality, pass by without tempo change, because it's all in your head, you want to fly on that clash of tones but it's too late, you're already three beats past it and somebody else has taken over.

I love Bach.
Tags: Matthäus Passion, singing
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