All language subtitles for Now Hear This PBS The Riddle of Bach EN

-Next, on
"Great Performances"...

-I'm Scott Yoo.

Come with me to meet the
greatest musician of all time,

Johann Sebastian Bach.

-This is him, definitely.
-It's bit like a labyrinth here.

-His violin music is
some of the most perfect,

most difficult, in existence.

I have to make pretzels
out of my fingers.

To play it, I'll first need
to understand his personality...

-Maybe it's the place
where he created

some of his most genius works.
This is a riddle.

You need to figure out
what it means.

-...and understand
his influences.

I never knew Bach's sense
of melody came from Vivaldi.

I'll travel with my wife,
Alice Dade, across Germany...

-This is really like
a challenge, this next one.

-...and into France, to Paris,

to meet some of
today's great musicians.

-This is, you know, folk music.

[ Harpsichord plays off-key ]

-Oh.
-Oh, my God.

What we discover along the way

will change my mind
about Bach forever.

-That's part of his genius.

He makes you work for it.

-Next on "Great Performances,"

an episode from the new music
series, "Now Hear This."

[ Mid-tempo classical music
plays ]

♪♪

-A week ago, I went to Germany

to learn how to play
the violin music of Bach.

So, how exactly did I end up
in Paris at Christmas,

dressed like
the Christmas turkey?

Well, it went
something like this.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Johann Sebastian Bach.

Most musicians would say

he's the greatest composer
of all time,

the greatest
musician
of all time.

Mozart studied him,
Beethoven idolized him.

They were mere geniuses.

But Bach -- Bach is God.

His work is the Bible.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Choir singing indistinctly ]

♪♪

♪♪

Bach's solo violin works

are sometimes called
the Himalayas of the violin.

And I never learned them.

So I came to Germany

to figure out
not just
how
to play them,

but how
Bach
would want me
to play them.

Many consider
this collection of work

the most perfect writing
for the violin.

To attempt them, I borrowed
the perfect violin --

the 1714 "Leonora Jackson"
Stradivarius.

♪♪

[ Violin string plays ]

And I wanted to start with the
most famous work of them all.

[ Violin plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Bach is a national
treasure here.

So I headed to Germany's
national concert hall

to talk to Alice Sara Ott,

the brilliant
German-Japanese pianist.

[ Door opens ]

-It's this way.

It's a bit like
a labyrinth here.

-Alice won a Bach competition
when she 15,

so I hoped she could help me
understand the "Chaconne."

It's fitting we were headed
down to the basement

to get to the bottom
of this dark music.

Wow.

And so you get to try
these pianos

and pick the one you want
to play in the concert?

-Yes. Exactly.

So, there's
three Steinways here,

and I would pick one of those.

-Great.
-It's actually quite nice, yeah.

-So, Alice, I'm here in Germany
because, my entire life,

I've avoided playing the Bach
"Partitas" for solo violin...

-Really?
-... and I decided,

well, you know, before I die,
I better play them.

So, you play these pieces
on the piano, right?

-Yes, Busoni has written
an arrangement, also Brahms.

-So, it's easier, right,
on the piano?

-It is easier,
when it comes to chords.

It is not really easy to play
because it's still --

-It's not?
-No.

What is it,
20 minutes of music?

-Right.
-And it's -- it's like a prayer.

Scott, could you actually play
the very end of the "Chaconne"

for me --
the last two, three bars?

-Sure.
[ Violin plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

Why, is your version
different or something?

-No, I want --
What key does it end for you?

-Ambiguous -- An ambiguous key.

It's of D.

Could be D major, but I guess
I think of it in D minor.

-So, you you see
the whole piece --

quite dark, a sad ending?

-Oh, I don't associate
this music with happy at all.

-Not at all? Okay.
-Not at all.

-Let me, then, actually play
the Busoni version,

or the Busoni interpretation
of the end.

So, this is still the same.

[ Piano plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

-Wow.

-Instead of...

♪♪

-Yeah.

-So, I wonder why Bach

just, you know,
left this question open.

Bach, as a personality --

I don't think he was
too heavy and too dark.

You know, I always
listen to Bach music

when I feel blue and
when I feel a bit depressed.

-So, you -- you find
Bach's music's to be uplifting?

-Sometimes, yes.

Even in the "Chaconne,"
there are parts,

like, yeah, in the middle --
-In the middle, of course.

-And I think the end is not --
you know,

it's not Bach to me somehow,
even if it's just...

[ Piano plays chord ]

So it's actually --

-The light at the end
of the tunnel.

-Yes.

[ Violin plays softly ]

-When Alice says there's
a little light in the darkness,

I needed to find out more.

♪♪

So I headed to Bach's
adopted home, Leipzig,

to meet another Alice --
my wife.

♪♪

During Bach's 27 years
in Leipzig,

this orchestra, the Gewandhaus,
was founded.

-Beautiful.

-Bach would have known and
worked with all their musicians,

and since then, the Gewandhaus

has had a strong connection
to his music.

♪♪

If anyone knows Bach, it's
their director, Andreas Schulz.

-We have had, in the past,
in our orchestra

nearly more than 1,100
musicians.

And you can go back always,

with a jump of
four, five, six stops,

and then you are in the time
of Mendelssohn,

and then you're
in the time of Bach.

So that's when this orchestra
is, in a way,

breathing and can
really tell you, let's say,

the spirits of that time
that say how to perform Bach

or how to perform Mendelssohn.

-Mm.
-It's like a living history.

-It is a living history,
absolutely.

-Sounds like a really
excellent acoustic.

-It is, I can tell you.

So, when the orchestra
is performing onstage,

they are always very happy.

The public is very happy
to listen.

And these fantastic acoustic --

there is nothing which is,
let's say,

changing the acoustic,
like an open wall or a curtain.

It's really the natural acoustic
of the hall.

-What you see is what you get.
-What you see is what you get.

You can exactly feel,
if you're onstage,

what you will get from the room.
-Right.

Would you mind if I played
a few notes onstage?

-Yes. It would be wonderful.
Very happy to listen to you.

[ Violin plays ]

♪♪

-This movement of all Bach's
solo violin works

gives me the most trouble,

and playing it
for someone like Andreas

is enough
to make anyone nervous.

But I've got to relax
and find the lightness.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Applause ]

-Super.

-If Andreas likes
the way I'm playing it,

maybe I'm headed
in the right direction.

[ Bells toll ]

But to understand
the character of this music,

I needed to understand
the character of Bach.

So we went to see the man
who literally wrote the book --

Christoph Wolff.

For many years,
he was the director here

at the Bach Archive.

Wow. Look at that.

I've seen this picture
so many times,

but this is the real one, right?

-This is him, definitely.
-This is it?

-Yeah. It's the only
authentic portrait we have.

-What kind of a person was Bach?

This looks a little bit
like he wasn't terribly serious.

-No, he isn't serious.

I mean, he is
a very serious composer.

-Of course.
-But I think he was

a person who had fun
to be with other people,

and he was
a gregarious character.

And I think, you know,
the way he presents himself --

You know, it's a friendly face.

He's not laughing, but I think
it's a friendly face,

and I think somewhat skeptical.

And he also had
this piece of music,

as you can see,
printed on a sheet of paper

and sent it
to colleagues and friends.

Well, that's his business card.

He is showing the people who
look at the picture who he is.

-So, it says "Canon triplex" --

"canon in three parts."
-Right.

For six voices.
-Six voices?

-Six voices,
but you see only three.

-Right. So you
have to figure out...

-You have to figure out.
-...how to make the other --

-Yeah, and I think

that's what the smile
of the composer is all about.

So, he holds and chose it,
and you know, now he says,

you know, "This is a riddle."
-Figure it out.

-"You have to do
something with it."

-Would you mind if I just took
a picture of the music part

so I can figure out the riddle?

-Not at all.
I mean, feel free to do it.

But that's the easy part.
-Okay. Alright.

-[ Chuckles ]

♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicks ]
-Good.

Now you have to work on it.
-Yeah.

[ Choir singing indistinctly ]

Next stop, Weimar,

one of the places Bach
lived before Leipzig.

Here we joined Alice's friend
Gareth Lubbe,

who is the principal violist
of the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

-This is where he hung out
with his friends.

-This hotel?
-Yeah, he drank beer here,

spoke about life, the universe,
and everything.

It's -- Maybe it's the place
where he created

some of his most genius works.

[ Laughter ]

-That's usually where I make
my genius works --

in the bar.
-In the bar.

-Below the hotel is
the Elephantenkeller

where we'd meet
the musicologist Andreas Jakobs,

an expert on Bach's
writing style.

-Can I have one of those?
-Yeah, sure.

So one of the things everyone
should know about Bach,

that he was drinking dark beer
in this very cellar.

So the Hotel Elephanten
is quite famous...

-Wow.
-So, welcome.

So, have three beers, will you?

As for Weimar, so, Bach was
court organist to the Duke.

And it was during this time
where he developed

one kind of decisive feature
of his composing style,

because he got aquatinted
with Vivaldi's concertos.

-Mm.
-Yeah.

You see, they were
in the library,

all the music of
the concertos by Vivaldi,

which were rather freshly
in print already.

And Bach was part
of the court chapel

and so what he did is not only
that he studied them,

but he also -- he transcribed
them for organ and harpsichord.

-Which pieces
are you talking about?

-For example, the one --
the A minor for two violins,

or one for four violins.
So, yeah.

-So, wait a minute.

So, you're talking about...

[ Violin plays ]

-Exactly. That's one.
-That's one, and, like, a...

[ Violin plays ]

-Yeah, that's one.

-So, those pieces,
he took the entire concerto

and he wrote it
for one organist?

-Yeah. Well, so,
the one has to do a lot.

-It's a lot -- lot to do, sure.
-Music for organ, though.

-Sure.
-So, Vivaldi's melody making was

really the decisive
starting point

of Bach's compositorial career.
-That blows my mind.

I never knew
that Bach's sense of melody

came from Vivaldi.
I never made that connection.

Honey, you want to play
the "Badinerie"?

-Yeah, sure.

-I forgot to mention
that my amazing wife

is also a world-class flutist.

We love this piece by Bach,

but this time,
I could hear Vivaldi in it.

[ Flute and violin play ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Yeah! Nice work.

-Have you played this?
-Yeah.

-When's the last time
you played...

-Ages ago.
-You go first.

[ Violins play ]

Oh, my God. No, no.
That's -- That's too hard.

How about the third movement?
-Okay.

-Have you played
the third movement?

-Yeah, just remind me.

[ Violin plays ]

[ Both violins play ]

♪♪

-Uh, how about, um --

How about the oboe
and violin concerto?

Do you know how that goes?
-Oh, that's a beautiful piece.

-The second movement?
-I'll steal that for now.

[ Flute and violin play softly ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Just outside the Elephant Hotel
is Weimar's Market Square.

And there, this time of year,
is a Christmas Market.

♪♪

Alice spent a few years
in Germany as a kid,

and the Christmas markets were
some of her favorite memories.

-[ Speaking German ]

My parents
always used to get this,

and I asked them
if it was any good.

Whoo. It's really good.

♪♪

♪♪

-I can imagine Bach here,

studying Vivaldi
in the Duke's Library,

walking the same
Christmas Market with
his
wife,

and maybe -- probably --
drinking some gluhwein.

[ Music fades ]

So that's -- That's a --
-That's a C?

-That's an F sharp on that.
-Yeah.

-That has to be --
That has to be alto clef.

Has to be.
-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-In our Leipzig hotel,
we set to work on Bach's riddle.

Can you learn the top line?
-Okay.

-And I'll learn the second
and third lines.

-Hello, viola clef. Alright.
-Okay?

I'm gonna go get my violin
while you do it, okay?

-Okay.

[ Violin plays ]

-Okay, play slower,
just so I have a chance.

So...

[ Flute and violin play ]

So, that's pretty cool.
-Alright, it's not bad.

-So, it says, "Canon triplex
in six voices."

-Yeah.
-So, we have three.

But, you know, Bach is holding
the music like this, right?

-Yeah.
-He's holding it kind of flat.

-Yeah.
So I think what it's implying

is that he's reading it
for one angle,

and you're reading it
from the other direction.

I think that's what's going on.
So what we have to do is

we have to flip this thing
upside down.

Uh...
-Oh, the inversion.

That's a good idea.
-Yeah.

So, here -- Okay.

Now you're gonna play
the alto clef from the bottom.

-Yeah.
-And so you play...

[ Violin plays ]

-[ Vocalizing ]

-Okay?
-Okay.

-And let me --
This is gonna be confusing

because now the bass clef
is on top,

and so it's gonna confuse me.

Let me just --
Let me just practice this.

[ Violin plays ]

♪♪

-Tricky.

♪♪

No, that's not right.
That sounds really weird.

That sounds like Schoenberg.
This is kind of annoying.

♪♪

We had to table that
to go a Christmas party

with Michael Maul,
a new-generation Bach scholar.

On the way, we stopped
in Bach's church.

-I mean, here,
everything happened.

Here, he premiered
most of his Leipzig pieces.

So here is Bach's spirit,
actually.

And by the way, if you want
to get this feeling,

there's a good opportunity
tomorrow morning.

-Okay.
-Because tomorrow morning,

the St. Thomas Choir,
Bach's choir,

is rehearsing the
"Christmas Oratorio" by Bach.

-Oh, nice.
-So, performances

next weekend,
they are all sold out.

-Ah.
-But tomorrow morning,

you have the chance
to listen to the rehearsal.

It's the St. Thomas Choir,

together with
the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

And in Germany, it's
so popular, this piece,

because it's not only
that you have, in Leipzig,

a lot of performances,
because people in Leipzig

have a very special
relationship to Bach.

-Of course.
-But all over Germany,

even in small villages,

they are performing
this piece around Christmas

because it's part of Christmas
like the Christmas tree.

So it's maybe, in a way...
-Like "The Nutcracker"?

-...part of
the central German DNA

to listen to
the "Christmas Oratorio"

in Christmastime.
-Hmm.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

Now on to the Christmas party.

It's hosted by
some Gewandhaus musicians.

So, there's family
and friends and food,

and, of course, there's music --
at the moment,

by the experimental jazz
saxophonist Hayden Chisholm.

[ Piano and saxophone
play softly ]

♪♪

♪♪

-One, two. One, two, three.

[ Up-tempo jazz plays ]

♪♪

-Gareth is also
a killer pianist.

He rearranged this Bach prelude
into a wild jazz number.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Music softens ]

♪♪

-Awesome.

Awesome.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

[ Music fades ]

Awesome.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪♪

I was listening to you play

that C minor,
"Well-Tempered Clavier,"

and I was moved like I haven't
been moved in a long time.

So thanks for that.
I appreciate that.

-We played a little bit
with the cadenza

and with slightly more --
-The cadenza was the best part.

That was awesome.

-You know, that's where we feel
at home, and we can just...

-It's like a deep blue,
deep purple cadenza

that you played.
That was -- That was sick.

-Yeah, well... [ Chuckles ]
-It was awesome.

Bach's still alive today.

-Yes, and I think
that's something else.

This piece is just --
They have so much life in them

that they can just continue
to reinvent them

and play over them
and just could go on and on.

It's a beautiful thing.
-Mm-hmm.

Being a human hasn't changed
so much in 300 years.

[ Mid-tempo classical music
plays ]

[ Dramatic music plays ]

♪♪

The next morning
came painfully soon.

But how better to start the day
then seeing

the rehearsal of Bach's
"Christmas Oratorio"

in the same church,
with the same choir

that Bach himself
performed with?

♪♪

♪♪

[ Choir singing indistinctly ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Back on the trail
of Bach's violin works,

we went to meet Andreas
again in Kothen,

where Bach wrote them,

to find out
why and how he wrote them.

-There's Bach's statue.
-There he is.

-And the reason
why they put it here is

because, for four years, Bach
was living in this very house,

and that's where he wrote
all the music

that's known up to today,

like the
"Brandenburg Concertos,"

violin partitas,
orchestra suites.

-So, I mean,
this house bore music

that's been heard
billions of times?

-Billions of times.
Yeah, and this all happening

in kind of a provincial
setting like this.

-So this was kind of like
a Galápagos Island,

a little bit, of music, right?
-Yeah.

-I mean, something that would
grow so fantastically

and out of control

in this small,
little town, right?

This is not Vienna, this is not
Paris, this is not London.

-Of course, when
he was here in Kothen

he was there in order
to serve a prince,

and this prince was very keen
on secular music,

and he was a violinist himself,
Prince Leopold.

-Mm-hmm.

-And so this prince
would just ask Bach

for his first pieces,
like the concertos

and the partitas
and orchestral music,

because he was not here as
an organist or church composer.

-Mm-hmm.
-This prince was not

only an admirer of his music,
but he was really a friend.

-Uh-huh.

-So he was godfather
of one of his kids.

Bach even returned here when
the prince had died, eventually,

and he sorted out things
for his funeral, made music.

If you want to, we could
actually move over to the church

where the funeral took place.

♪♪

So, this is St. Jakobs church.

This is an old
Gothic hall church,

as you can see --
very clear in style.

This would be the gallery
where the funeral music

would have taken place,
with 65 musicians up there.

-Wow.

-Let me show you something else,
as well, in here.

So, it's something we're
talking about, the funeral.

You see, this carpet
is kind of hiding a secret.

So, if you give me a hand.
-Sure.

-Yeah.
-Oh.

-Now, look at that.

Secret doors opening to vaults.

I think we're
close to the crypt

where the Prince
has been buried.

-Wow.
-We're going to enter

[Speaking indistinctly]
the dead.

[ Chuckles ] Hey.

-Are -- Are we going in there?
-Yeah, we're going in there.

-[ Chuckles ]
-Most certainly we are.

[ Metal clanks ]

Right, so, take care.
It's a little bit dangerous.

No lights, but we are
moving into the vaults

where the Prince lies.

[ Door unlocks ]

[ Door creaks ]

So, now, this is the real stuff.

-Oh, my God.

-Well, now, have a look at that.

So...

-This looks like
the "Indiana Jones" --

-"The Last Crusade."
-"The Last Crusade," exactly.

It's a library
but inside of a church.

-So, kind of big sarcophagus.
This is actually --

These two here
are Leopold's family.

His mother here, his wife there,

two little children's coffin's
there, so...

-Oh.
-Because children were dying

very early very often
in those days.

Even the wife of Leopold's,
she just grew 22.

-Oh.
-And Leopold himself, 32.

And the thing is,

if you look at this quite
ornamented sarcophagus,

then you'd be surprised to see
the one of Leopold himself,

which is right over there.

It's the plainest,
most simple one

in the whole room here.

Well, now,
considering all the pomp

and the kind of dignity of
all these other sarcophaguses,

so, this is the one of Leopold,
the Prince himself,

the friend of Bach,
who found his last place

in this kind of very humble
coffin, actually.

[ Organ plays mid-tempo music ]

♪♪

-Here in the royal chapel,

Bach played for the Prince
and his court.

It's also where Bach's son,
Carl Philipp Emanuel,

who became a great composer
himself, was baptized.

♪♪

♪♪

Bravo. Fantastic.
-Beautiful.

-Well, thanks a lot.
-That music --

What I'm amazed by,
when I hear it,

is, every single time
there's a note for your feet,

it's absolutely the right note.
It's amazing.

-It's also different
from playing the piano,

because it's really --

You have to kind of
move your body.

And organ playing actually
is a little bit like dancing.

So, basically, this is
one of the things

Bach might have
wrote here in Kothen,

especially because here
in Kothen,

he was responsible for playing
dance music at dinners,

and so on and so on.
So, actually, you can see,

from that time on,

that all kinds
of dance characters

kind of are being infused
in all different kind of styles.

So you can see this from a piece
I'm gonna play in some seconds.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, this was placed at the end
of one of this major collections

he presented
to the public in '39.

-But this piece here represents

Bach at the height
of his powers, right?

-Yeah, and what he did there,
he composed a fugue

but not only a normal fugue
but a triple fugue.

-So, "triple fugue" means
there are three tunes.

-There are three tunes.
-Three melodies.

-Yeah, and the first melody
is then combined

with subsequently the second
and then the third one.

-Okay.
-Now, for the beginning,

it's really
kind of old-style, like...

[ Organ plays softly ]

♪♪

And so on.
-Mm-hmm.

-And then there comes a break,
and there's a second fugue.

[ Organ plays up-tempo music ]

♪♪

And then there comes
a third fugue.

And this is actually --
This is a gigue -- a real gigue.

And this is eventually then
combined with each other,

and then the first subject,
as well, and this is really --

-This is something one person
can do by yourself?

-There wouldn't --
Don't do this at home.

[ Laughter ]

So, try to get in
somewhere around here.

[ Organ plays up-tempo music ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

It's really like dancing.

[ Organ plays up-tempo music ]

And so on, yeah?

-I can't believe you can move
your feet that fast.

That's crazy.
-It's like you're doing this,

this, and this,
and something else, too.

-Yeah, but that's
exactly what it is.

-[ Laughs ]
-Yeah.

And so this is really
one of the last piece of one.

Then, in the very end
of all his organ arts,

he wrote a gigue.

-It's amazing.

[ Violin plays up-tempo music ]

♪♪

-This piece from the
"Third Partita" is also a gigue.

Bach often wrote his solo violin
works in the form of a dance.

Today I realized
he must have meant them

to really feel like dances.

And I'm feeling closer than ever
to knowing how to play them.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Back our Leipzig hotel, we had
some homework to finish up.

Alright, so I flipped that thing
around the C...

-Okay.

-...and it just didn't
make any sense.

So now I'm gonna try
to flip it around the B.

-Oh, "B" for "Bach."

-Maybe.

Okay, that's that.

And then, um...

[ Humming ]

I know what that is.

That's the left hand
of the "Goldberg Variations."

-[ Laughs ]
-Right?

♪ Duh

-Yeah.

-[ Vocalizing ]

-[ Vocalizing ]
-[ Vocalizing ]

♪♪

I mean, it's missing the --
It's missing the C,

but, you know --
-But it's basically there.

[ Both vocalizing ]

♪♪

-I'm sure that's part
of the puzzle, too.

[ Flute plays notes ]

-It's like a new "Jeopardy!"

-Okay, so it's...

[ Violin plays ]

♪♪

Okay, okay, ready?
I'm gonna start.

[ Flute and violin play ]

♪♪

-Okay, you keep going.
-Yeah, we just keep going.

Okay, now here's
what we're gonna do.

Here's what we're gonna do.
Let's play the original version.

-Yeah.
-And record it.

-Okay.
-And then let's play

the upside down version.
-Yeah.

-And we'll lay it
on top of the original,

and then we'll have
the six parts together.

-Oh, yeah, great.
-Okay, here we go.

Ready?
This is the original version.

-Okay.
-Okay.

[ Bells toll ]

To see if we got it right,
we went down the road again

to the Bach Archive to ask
their director, Peter Wollny.

So, I think
I've solved that riddle.

So I want to play
what we came up with.

[ Flute and violin play ]

♪♪

-Wow, that's it.

You figured it out.
-Okay, thank you.

And then the other part of the
puzzle is that the baseline,

the third line of music --
That's the first note

of each bar of the aria
of the "Goldberg Variations."

-That's absolutely right.
-What a mind.

I mean, to write that,
that's ridiculously hard.

-It's ridiculously hard,
but it gives you

a good impression
of how his mind worked.

-Do you think --
Is it fair to say

that Bach might have been
the smartest person

who's ever lived?

-At least one of the
smartest, yeah.

-So, a couple of days ago,
we were in Kothen,

and Andreas Jakobs,
he was explaining

how important dance music was
to Bach, and --

you know, like the bourrée,
the courante.

All of those dances
found its way

into so much of Bach's music.

-Well, dance rhythms played
a crucial role,

actually, in Baroque music,

and particularly
in Bach's music.

This doesn't mean
that he had people

dancing around him all the time,

but he simply picked up
these rhythmic patterns

and the phrase structure,
and he simply needed to fill it

with his own
thematic inventions.

-Mm-hmm.
-If you think of the stylized

dances at the French Court,
established with Louis XIV,

all this played a very
important role at German courts

that picked up
the French tradition

in the late 17th century.

So Bach, as a court musician
in Weimar, in Kothen,

was exposed
to this culture of dancing.

So if you would like to learn
more about these traditions,

you would need to go
to Paris and to France

to find out
where this all came from.

-Wow.

[ Piano plays softly ]

♪♪

So, we were headed to Paris
to visit some dancers.

But on the way,
we stopped in Chaumont

at the harpsichord workshop
of Laurent Somenyak.

♪♪

Bach never played
his "Goldberg Variations"

on a piano, because
it hadn't been invented.

He wrote and played them
on the harpsichord.

Its strings are plucked
by a tiny plectrum,

and each has to be
exactly the same

to give each string
the same volume.

[ Harpsichord plays ]

-Here we go.

[ Harpsichord plays scales ]

♪♪

-[ Speaking French ]
-Right.

[ Speaking French ]
-Right, right.

[ Speaking French ]

[ Harpsichord plays ]

-Harpsichords,
like all stringed instruments,

have to be tuned a lot.

But exactly how each note
is tuned or tempered,

in relation to the other notes,
is something that Bach

and the great harpsichordist
Lillian Gordis

have thought a lot about.

On this harpsichord
from the 1640s,

they've used the tuning system
from before Bach.

-The problem is that
on the keyboard, where

you can't move your fingers --
like, on the violin,

you can constantly address --
-Sure.

-...here, you have to make
a decision when you're tuning.

There are tonalities
that don't work.

-Mm-hmm.
-So you get to a certain point

and you get to an interval,
which is called "the wolf."

-The wolf.
-They call it "the wolf"

because it kind of howls.

It's so out of tune
that it howls.

So, this is the really,
really famous C major prelude

that starts
"Well-Tempered Clavier,"

book one in C major.
-Nice.

[ Harpsichord plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-If you take
the first bar of that

and you play it in C sharp
major, you get this.

[ Harpsichord plays ]

And that's the wolf.
-Oh, my God.

-So, C sharp major is not a key
that you can play in

until the beginning
of the 18th century

or even
the middle of the 18th.

-And that's not because
you didn't tune it right.

That's the system of tuning.
-That is the system.

And, Bach, we know that this was
a problem for him

because he was an organist.

So, every week,
he was gonna play for services

and he was gonna
improvise stuff.

And he would want to just go
to whatever tonality it was.

He wanted to keep going.

He didn't want to be stopped
by the instrument.

And of course, the organ
is an instrument

that takes a very long time
to tune,

and the temperament is set by
the form of the pipes already.

So Bach and people of his time
started to say,

"What can we do?"
-Hmm.

-Bach himself didn't leave us
a temperament.

He left us two huge books
of the "Well-Tempered Clavier,"

and these are a cycle
of preludes and fugues

where he goes up chromatically
through the scale

in major and minor
for everything.

So you have C major...
[ Harpsichord plays ]

...and C minor, C sharp major,
and C sharp minor,

et cetera, all the way up.
-Yeah.

-And we don't know
what he tuned.

-Hmm.
-We know that he was using it

to show, "I can play
in all these keys."

-On one keyboard.

"I don't have to go
to another harpsichord."

-"I don't have to
change harpsichords,

and I don't have
to use split keys,

and I found
a system that works."

And that's Bach's thing.

He doesn't give you an answer.

He doesn't write it out for you.

He gives you
a huge corpus of music,

and he's like,
"Well, I have the answer."

-Mm.
-That's part of his genius.

He doesn't hand it to you
on a silver platter.

He makes you work for it.
[ Violin plays ]

♪♪

-Like the musical puzzle
he left in his portrait,

Bach left his tuning system
as a riddle.

Lillian found her own solution,

and we played this number
with her tuning.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

From Chaumont, it was
a short drive to Paris

to the Fondation Louis Vuitton,
to see one of Europe's

most celebrated cellists,
Gautier Capucon.

♪♪

We were there to talk about
dance rhythms in Bach

and in the work of so many
other composers after him.

[ Music stops ]

[ Cello plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

I mean, I know
that's only a prelude,

but you do a feel a little bit
of a dance element

in that music.
-Well, yeah, you do.

You know, the prelude
was an introduction

in a certain tonality,
spirit atmosphere.

But you're absolutely right,
you can already feel

all the succession of dances
that are in every cello suite --

the minuets, the courantes,
the bourrée, gigue, saraband.

Even the saraband,
even the slow one,

is a dance, actually.
And you know, for us,

it's so important to feel that
while we play,

because it gives
the right tempo,

the right balance in the music,
and the right spirit.

-It all has dance in it, right?

Well, Jérôme,
have you played the...

[ Violin plays ]

-Yes.
-Yeah?

[ Piano and violin play ]

♪♪

[ Music stops ]
That's dance music.

-Absolutely. Definitely.
-Have you ever...

[ Violin plays ]

-Yes.

♪♪

-That's kind of a dance, right?
-Well, it is --

-It's a rondo.
-This is folk music,

and folk music
is inspired by dance also.

We actually have a very
beautiful quasi minuetto

of the E minor
first Brahms "Cello Sonata."

-Sure. Let's hear that.

[ Piano and cello play ]

♪♪

♪♪

-You know, so many composers
were inspired by dance.

It's incredible.
And you can feel the pulse,

for us, as musicians
and as listeners.

-Yeah. It's really cool.

I heard you guys playing
some Piazzolla also.

-You know, Piazzolla,
now that you talk about it --

I mean, it's --

Piazzolla was a great admirer
of Bach when he was young.

He loved his music.

And actually
he wanted to study it.

And he came to Paris to study

with an incredible teacher
called Nadia Boulanger.

And one day,
she was not very happy

about what he was doing
or his inspiration,

and she actually pushed him
in that direction,

saying, "You should use
the music of your country.

You should use the folk music.
You should use the dance."

And that's when he started

to really get more and more
into this music.

And he became this, of course,
great tango master that we know.

Can we play "The Grand Tango"
for you?

-I'd love to hear it.
-Jérôme?

[ Piano and cello play ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-So, honey, I saws this place

where we can get costumes,
like Baroque costumes,

for the dance lessons
that we're gonna take.

-No, we're not doing that.
-No, come on!

-No.
-It'd be really fun.

-Honey, I'm not gonna look like
a [bleep] with some costumes.

-No, no, you'd look good.
You'd look cute, in fact.

Let's just give it a try.
-No way.

♪♪

Look like a --
look like a salmon.

♪♪

-[ Laughs ]

♪♪

♪♪

-All I need is
long nails, and a...

[ Laughs ]
Got to laugh, right?

♪♪

-Relatively speaking, of course.

♪♪

-What do you think?
-Yeah, it's okay.

-Oh, come on.

-Yeah, you know, this --
I can live with this.

It looks -- It looks good.

♪♪

Now dressed for the part,

we headed to the Baroque dance
studio of Edith Lalonger,

one of the true experts
on the subject,

to see the dance
that inspired Bach.

♪♪

-Scott! How beautiful!
Magnifique!

Ohh!

I have to teach you how to walk
with your shoes.

-Okay.
-You know that a dance master

was very important
everywhere in Europe,

not only to learn how to dance
but how to walk,

how to sit down --
-You mean even for a non-dancer?

-All educated people
were a dancer.

-Oh, I see. Okay.
-Oh.

-So, now if you want to --
Alice...

-Mm-hmm?
-...to dance with Scott...

-Is it okay if I just take
these off, just put these --

-...like a contemporary dancer,
what is important

is not the shoes.
It's the rhythm.

and how you present yourself.
-Right.

-And plié.

Up, up, up.

Down.
-Oh.

-More elevation, Scott.
Up, up.

Yes! Down.
-Right. Okay, yeah, right.

So, being elevated is important.
But being elevated

is also important
for the music, right?

I mean, the elevation implies
a kind of lightness, right?

-Exactly.
-Could you do it for real?

Just -- Could you show us what
it would look like in tempo?

-In tempo, it will be...

-Three, four.

♪♪

-Yeah, I'm lost -- just lost.
-[ Laughs ]

[ Music fades ]

-Well, you are lost because
we change step, you know?

-Of course.
-It was common in Baroque dance

to change step for each bar.

This dance was danced
by Louis Quatorze.

-Louis XIV was a dancer himself?
-He was a dancer himself,

and he brought the dance
in a very high level,

and all the technique --

-So, Louis XIV was pushing
this dance all over Europe?

-Yes, because he was
a lover of dance

and give to the dance master

all the possibility
to do so, you know?

-And then France exported
those dance masters to Germany,

to England, to Scotland,
to wherever --

Italy.
-Yes.

-Edith, I have a favor
to ask you.

Would you mind if I played
the Bach "Bourrée"

and you guys danced to that?

-Okay.
-'Cause I feel like

I might learn a lot,
actually, from your --

from your dance.

-Take your violin, we dance.
-Okay.

[ Violin plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

How would Bach want me
to play his violin works?

He'd want me to figure them out
for myself.

And now seeing and feeling the
dance style that inspired him,

I know that this is dance music.

Maybe his violin works
weren't written to dance to,

but if they don't have
the lightness and rhythm

of Baroque dance,
they're simply not Bach.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Maybe more important,

I feel like I've solved
the riddle of Bach himself.

He's not a god --
just a guy who loved

the Italian music of Vivaldi,

French dance, German beer,
and a good joke.

It's true, he was also
one of our greatest geniuses,

but he would never
take that too seriously.

♪♪

I'm Scott Yoo, and I hope
you can now hear this.

[ Piano plays up-tempo music ]

♪♪

-To order "Now Hear This"
on DVD or the companion CD,

visit shopPBS or
call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

This program is also available
on Amazon Prime Video.

♪♪

To find out more about this

and other
"Great Performances" programs,

visit pbs.org/greatperformances,

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and follow us on Twitter.

♪♪

♪♪

-Next time on
"Great Performances,"

discover the greatest composer
you've never heard heard of,

Domenico Scarlatti.

[ Piano plays ]

Of course, that's Scarlatti.
-Of course.

-I'll follow his footsteps
to discover

the sounds and rhythms
that inspired him

and realize
he was more important

to the history of music
than I could have ever imagined.

Next time on
"Great Performances,"

another episode
of "Now Hear This."