For Heights and Depths No Words Can Reach . . .
Last week, I was working with one of my adult students on the Minuet in G minor from the Anna Magdalena Notebook. I do not teach it very often, certainly not as often as the G Major Minuet, which everyone recognizes and is a cheerful, easily recognized tune.
The gentleman had played the left hand and the right hand separately on the G minor Minuet, and it was difficult for him. I suggested we try the first line hands together. He played the first 2 measures, and stopped, not because he was making mistakes, but because he was moved. He turned to me and waived at the sheet music and said "this is so beautiful, I did not realize it when I was playing hands separate."
I replied, " yes, there is a deep sorrow, a pathos in this music."
It was a beautiful and rewarding moment for me as a music teacher, and reminded me of why I became a musician, and the shared humanity of all people if we only allow ourselves to feel it.
This is not a difficult piece for advanced musicians, but the level of understanding of the sorrow requires the life experience all of us have to experience to be fully human.
You cannot be a good musician without having this kind of emotional response to music, no matter how technically skilled or disciplined you are.
This is what makes music a universal language (side note: the student is an immigrant from an Asian country, appreciating the music of a German composer from almost 300 years ago.)
For Heights and Depths No Words Can Reach . . .
Music is the Soul's Own Speech.
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