A Class By Himself

CB. One year, the Oregon Bach Festival had as its theme, "Bach and the Americas" What did you hope Festival participants derived from looking at this very large picture?

HR. First, to see what Bach's reception in this hemisphere has been over the centuries. And indeed, there has been a tremendous interest in Bach's music, especially in this century. I think we have more than fifty Bach festivals at completely different places, where obviously there exist people who are so interested that they dedicate a complete festival to Bach.

Second, it is certainty worthwhile to look at the composers in the past and also in our time: What do they get from Bach? What do they think about Bach?

You see, among all composers, I regard Bach as the teacher par excellence. There is virtually no one in music history, performers or composers, who has not come under the influence of Bach in some way. I remember, for example, when I conducted the Cleveland Orchestra (I think it was Dvorák), and before the concert I went to greet the concertmaster in his room. And he warms up with what? With a violin sonata of Bach before playing Dvorák. This is just one small example of how deep that influence is. I think many composers in this hemisphere somehow had to develop their own view of Bach's music and decide if they would include some of his techniques, his thinking, in their music-or see if they could offer a contrast to that and not follow the structural approach which Bach used so much.

CB. I'm reminded that there is a Glenn Gould recording of the C Major Prelude and Fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier on board the Voyager spacecraft. The spacecraft left our solar system a few years ago and was designed to last nearly a billion years as it traveled to the outer edges of the universe. What are your thoughts on this gesture?

HR. Well, I think it's a gesture of someone who loved Bach very much and thought this was the best he could send to the universe, and I agree totally with it.

Caitriona Bolster is the Music Director of KWAX-FM, a 24-hour all-classical radio station affiliated with the University of Oregon. She holds a degree in musicology from Yale University, and is the former assistant director of Yale's Oral History project in American music.

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