How I interpret Bach: Tomás Cotik on Classification | Article | The Strad https://www.thestrad.com/playing-and-teaching/how-i-interpret-bach-to...

How I interpret Bach: Tomás

Cotik on Classi�cation
24 JANUARY 2020

Ahead of his 2020 album release of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, the violinist continues his blog series, in which he
discusses the contradictions between the opposing trends and traditions in Bach interpretation, and his personal
solutions to them

In last week’s instalment, Tomás Cotik discussed Traditions and Musical Lineage, ‘Interpretation’ and Performance
Environment. This week he focuses on Classi�cation

We haven’t yet touched on the overwhelming authority of the composer. As musicians, we are often intrigued and
mysticized by the fact that there is so much we don’t know and by our reverence to the authority of the long-dead
composer.  But, does the composer think about every single aspect of performance? Does the composer (even if
he/she was a performer) have the best practical solutions to technical mastery and interpretation? When do we, as
interpreters, take authority?

I have shared some of my current (perhaps simpli�ed) thoughts and decisions in performing these works. So, getting
back to where we started: What is my approach? Is it ‘hip’ in the sense of a fashionable, new crossover approach? Is
it a Historically Informed Performance? Or should the ‘I’ stand for one of these?

Read: Tomás Cotik: How I interpret Bach

Read: How I interpret Bach: Tomás Cotik on strings, intonation and vibrato
Read: How I interpret Bach: Tomás Cotik on Overdotting and Rhythmic Assimilation

Historically—Inspired…Imaginative…Interesting…Intuitive…Inaccurate…Ignorant…Irrelevant…hy sterical
—Performance?

One answer that might offer a bit of solace can be found in an article that I found a short while ago, after having
recorded the set.  

In her article, ‘Analyzing Difference in Recordings of Bach’s Violin Solos with a Lead from Gilles Deleuze,’ Dorottya
Fabian describes the idea of characterizing Bach interpretations into three categories of performers and analyses
performance parameters (such as articulation, rhythm,  bowing, tempo, timing, ornamentation, tone production,
vibrato, and phrasing) in the recordings of each group.

Fabian differentiates according to the following categories: the ‘Romantic Modernist’ (RMP), the ‘Literalist, or
Classical-Modernist’ (CMP), and ‘Historically-Informed Performance’ (HIP). RMP interpreters hold a reverential

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image of Bach as a composer of works for the church. Their approach sounds ponderous, sustained, and slow-
moving (e.g. Heifetz, Menuhin, Perlman, Hahn, Ehnes, Fischer and Khachatryan).

Conversely, CMP interpreters strip away romantic elements from the music and reduce emotional excesses by
emphasizing repetitive motor rhythms, taking fast, steady tempos, and playing with an even vibrato and little
ornamentation (e.g. Milstein, Grumiaux, Jaap Schröder, and Sigiswald Kuijken in between).

Finally, HIP recordings are characterized by the study archival sources (e.g. treatises), grounding in harmony rather
than in melody, �exible rhythms/tempo, short, lifted bow strokes and rapid note decay (e.g. van Dael, Huggett,
Montanari, and Luca).

The examining of the different recordings shows that hardly any one interpretation �ts perfectly in the theorized
categories. Countless problems of classi�cation emerge, indicating constantly shifting, transforming, and evolving
stylistic territories that ‘mix and match various performance elements in diverse combinations and degrees.’

Fabian leaves behind the belief that the score is the work and instead acknowledges that we, as well as the
artworks, are multiplicities. Employing a ‘Deluzian’ conceptual framework, which eludes categorical or normative
thinking and binary opposites (spontaneous �exibility vs. literal consistency, HIP vs. mainstream, etc.), Fabian comes
to the conclusion that more than one thing can be true at once, and that there exists a constantly transforming
process in the interpretation of these works.

Read: How I interpret Bach: Tomás Cotik on Tempo Rubato, Strong and Weak Measures and Notes Inégales
Read: How I interpret Bach: Tomás Cotik on Ornaments, Trills and Appoggiaturas
Read: How I interpret Bach: Tomás Cotik on The Pieces in Context, The Title and Editions

My/our interpretation cannot be an authentic recreation, nor does it attempt to be. Studying the work and the
documents surrounding it is just the launch pad needed to start any trip. There doesn’t need to be a divide between
the musicians who adhere to HIP and the ones who identify as “modern” players. Putting our interpretation into a
box and labeling it is problematic.

It’s a long journey, and I stand by the idea that our interpretation changes along the way. Curiosity as inspiration and
the pursuit of lifelong learning is what hopefully remains constant, and what I try to pass on to my students.

Next week, Cotik concludes his series on interpreting Bach

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