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The Well-Tempered Cello: Life With Bach's Cello Suites
The Well-Tempered Cello revisits the masterpieces that form a soundtrack to a cellist's life - the Six Cello Suites of Johann Sebastian Bach- and weaves them into a memoir of how these beloved compositions can help us interpret our own life stories.
Miranda Wilson was a child in New Zealand when she first began to learn the notes of Bach's Cello Suites, starting with the famous Prelude in G Major. After moving to the United States for a career as a cellist, music journalist, and professor, she became obsessed with the goal of performing all six from memory in a marathon concert. Relearning and reinterpreting the Cello Suites, she realized that there is always something new to be found within their notes and melodies, as if they possess a life of their own.
In a six-part structure that resembles the arc of Bach's cycle, The Well-Tempered Cello creates both an expressive reading of Bach's Cello Suites and a reflection on the musician's restless search for meaning. It is a book for music lovers who seek to know why we listen again and again to the compositions that accompany us on life's journeys, and why music seems to listen to us too.
Miranda Wilson was a child in New Zealand when she first began to learn the notes of Bach's Cello Suites, starting with the famous Prelude in G Major. After moving to the United States for a career as a cellist, music journalist, and professor, she became obsessed with the goal of performing all six from memory in a marathon concert. Relearning and reinterpreting the Cello Suites, she realized that there is always something new to be found within their notes and melodies, as if they possess a life of their own.
In a six-part structure that resembles the arc of Bach's cycle, The Well-Tempered Cello creates both an expressive reading of Bach's Cello Suites and a reflection on the musician's restless search for meaning. It is a book for music lovers who seek to know why we listen again and again to the compositions that accompany us on life's journeys, and why music seems to listen to us too.
- GenresMusic
Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2022
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About the author
Miranda Wilson
5 books2 followersMiranda Wilson is a New Zealand-American cellist who has performed as a soloist and chamber musician on six continents. Author of the acclaimed books "Notes for Cellists: A Guide to the Repertoire," "Teaching Violin, Viola, Cello, and Double Bass: Historical and Modern Pedagogical Practices" (with Dijana Ihas and Gaelen McCormick), "The Well-Tempered Cello: Life with Bach's Cello Suites," and "Cello Practice, Cello Performance," her writing creates connections between performance, pedagogy, and music history for cellists worldwide. As Professor of Cello at the University of Idaho, Artistic Director of the Idaho Bach Festival, and a longtime contributor to Strings magazine, she combines her international performing career with her love of writing, teaching, and talking about the cello.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 23, 2023
I loved this book! Music history, music theory, Bach biography, memoir, musings, all centered around one of my favorite pieces of music- the complete cello suites
Displaying 1 of 1 review