The Colour of the Numbers
More than 10 years ago I sat in a café in Shimokitazawa, talking with a couple of friends. We were discussing music at one point and both of my friends agreed that they didn’t like Bach because he was “too mathematical.” I’m reminded of this because I recently bought a few recordings of Bach by Glenn Gould; The Goldberg Variations (the 1955 and 1981 versions) as well as both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier.
Saying you don’t like Bach because he’s too mathematical is the same as saying you don’t like rivers because, as Hans-Henrik Stølum of Cambridge University discovered, the ratio of their actual length from source to sea against their direct length (i.e., as the crow flies) tends to be π.
Now I’m not in the least mathematically inclined, but I still can’t really understand what they were talking about. It’s the numbers that coalesce around the music, not the other way around (and anyway with Gould’s playing the whole question becomes irrelevant).
Gould, of course, has a lot to answer for, having ruined anyone else’s Bach for me. I recently rented a CD of Keith Jarret playing The Well-Tempered Clavier and had to turn it off after the first few pieces. It’s a monotone, plodding, lifeless recording completely without light or rhythm.
If Bach is a volcano, as Pablo Casals said, then the villages nestled at the foot of Jarret’s interpretation are perfectly safe.
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Posted to The Good • 2002.04.28 (Sun) • 18:06
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