Susan k. Chen Memorial Foundation for Music Education

Wolfgang Rübsam Concert

HORIZONTAL INTERPRETATION OF POLYPHONY

In Bach’s music, polyphony creates the harmonic architecture and color, not the other way around by chordal theory.

This is clearly and often significantly misunderstood by even the most serious keyboard artists worldwide.

The complex interaction of singing voices is what I refer to as a “horizontal interpretation”, – as opposed to what

seems to have become the run-of-the-mill finger-oriented vertical/chordal/harmonic/mechanical approach to

performance, – of what J.S. Bach clearly meant us to understand and communicate.

I hope that this recital helps to counter this misunderstanding and serve as a vehicle to assist and re-orient

the cultural “inner ear” for Bach and for early music in general.

Perhaps beyond that. it may encourage further the art of elegant ornamentation especially, but not exclusively in repeat sections.

This skill is not limited to just adding trills but in fact includes all kinds of flourishes, especially in sequence patterns and in many cadences.

in summary, it is all about the conversations of the polyphonic voices and incorporating the baroque Italian vocal style of independent singing,

the so called vocal techniques of portamento and vacillare.

www.wolfgangrubsam.com

▍Information: Wolfgang Rubsam Concert
◉ Date: 2018 / 11 / 25(Sun)pm 14:30
◉ Venue: Pingtung Performing Arts