FOREWORD by Misuzu Tanaka:
At first glance, Leoš Janáček and J. S. Bach are two very different composers. I thought that I would experience two completely separate worlds when playing their music. However, as I performed their works more, I realized that, albeit through different compositional avenues, both have ultimately had a similar effect on me as an artist.
My interest in the music of Leoš Janáček grew when I heard the conversations of locals on the time-frozen streets of Prague. Although Leoš Janáček was a Moravian, the slightly bittersweet sounding voices of the Bohemians gave me a glimpse into the history and psyche of the Czech people. As I began to fully immerse myself in finding more about this unique composer, I discovered he was a strong advocate of folk music, which is clearly tied to the language of the people. Folk music can bring together people of vastly different backgrounds, evident in the joy a woodwork craftsman and I shared when we discovered we knew the same folk song about the Czechs’ love for wine. Much like this experience of mine, through the influence of folk music and the Czech language, I believe Janáček wanted his music to directly reach, or, in his case, grasp the heart of every listener.
The result of the music of J. S. Bach has been the same in my eyes; it directly reaches the heart of so many listeners in the world. No wonder Beethoven, the composer who spoke of humanity, turned to J. S. Bach during his late compositional period! The sheer perfection of his voice leading, harmony, and melodic lines are second to none, and the richness in rhetoric has had a magical effect, aiding me in “cleansing” the mind and soul.
Through the raw emotions that both composers display in their works, I believe that we learn about ourselves as humans; they teach us that it is acceptable to have feelings of joy, sadness, anger, doubt, fear, longing… and humbles us much like the following opening quote from The Tale of the Heike.
“The sound of the Gion Shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.” (Translation by Helen Craig McCullough)
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