“It seems that classical musicians — and as I now understand, jazz musicians at conservatory— are trained to forget the purpose of the music right at the point they start interpreting it.”

In this short episode (11 minutes of talking + 10 minutes of music) I read an entry from my practice diary which may be interesting enough to ponder…

As it was passed around during covid, the “Coronavirus Etude” looked something like this:

Hopefully you’ll enjoy the lesson I got out of the few ‘performances’ made of such a meme.

Meanwhile, Rosalyn Tureck is featured for the first time on this show. Here is a picture of her at a Moog. (I didn’t mention that one of my favorite facts about her is that she espoused this instrument as a perfectly valid way to capture Bach’s music.) Her personal “revelation” about Bach, as related in David Dubal’s Reflections from the Keyboard is read in full.

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Concepts Covered:

In this episode of the WTF Bach Podcast, host Evan Shinners holds off on his exploration of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, reflections on the five-voice fugue in C-sharp minor to come. Instead, practice diaries, and the balance between discipline and spontaneity in classical music is discussed. Drawing on his own pandemic-era “Coronavirus Etude” entry, Shinners critiques how performance can drift from function to ritual, turning practical gestures into overly sanctified art. He also shares stories of pianist Rosalyn Tureck and her personal revelation about Bach, contrasting her style with Glenn Gould and highlighting the diversity of Bach interpretation. This episode blends humor, history, and performance insight. Bach enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the philosophy of practice and interpretation in classical music.

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