Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents

Guest Lecture: The Organic and Symbolic Structure of Bach's D minor Partita for Solo Violin
An inquiry into the contrapuntal fabric of Bach’s music. 

How does a composer write “abstract” music so that it can communicate to us as human beings and somehow create meaning? After all, pitches by themselves do not represent anything specific or concrete in the world. When a painter (abstraction aside) paints a landscape or a bouquet of peonies, though in fact the painting itself be only an assemblage of pigments and colors, we recognize with our eyes a “landscape,” or a “bouquet of peonies.”
 
Historically, music was long attached to the word through vocal music or instrumentally, through short and clearly defined dances bearing specific rhythms and recognizable gestures. JS Bach was born at a time when instrumental music takes on an ever increasing role in the production of music and was going well beyond the recognizable into true abstraction. Sounds organized by themselves and through themselves only, with no true reference to anything recognizable in the real world.
 
With Bach’s D minor Partita for Solo Violin as a subject, Dr. Philip Lasser, Professor at The Juilliard School and Director of the European American Musical Alliance (EAMA) Summer Music Institute and Online Academy, will discuss the use of specific sub-motivic units to create an internal organization of pitches from moment to moment enabling us to enjoy meaning, message and philosophy through pure abstract music. Using simple tools discussed in his treatise The Spiraling Tapestry - An inquiry into the Contrapuntal Fabric of Music, Dr. Lasser will elucidate how Bach creates organic structure and through symbolic and enigmatic motives, creates an aural universe of depth and meaning.

Philip Lasser is a visionary composer native to French and American traditions.  His music, direct and undisguised, creates a unique sound world that blends together the colorful harmonies of French Impressionist sonorities and the dynamic rhythms and characteristics of American music. 

Early in his musical training, Lasser entered Nadia Boulanger’s famed Ecole d’Arts Americaines in Fontainebleau, France, where he began to establish his connection to the French lineage. Following his studies at Harvard College, Lasser lived in Paris, where he worked with Boulanger’s closest colleague and disciple, Narcis Bonet, and legendary pianist Gaby Casadesus.  He received his master’s degree from Columbia University while studying with Jacques-Louis Monod, and his doctorate at The Juilliard School, where he worked with David Diamond. Since 1994, Lasser has been a distinguished member of the faculty of The Juilliard School. He also directs the European American Music Alliance (EAMA) Summer Music Institute, a school dedicated to training composers, chamber musicians, and conductors in the tradition of Nadia Boulanger. 

Lasser’s works can be heard on the Sony Classical, Telarc, New World, Delos, Crystal, and BMG RCA/Red Seal labels.
 

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For more information, call 845-758-7196, e-mail [email protected],
or visit https://bard.edu/conservatory.

Time: 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Bitó Conservatory Building

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