Breath' and the Baroque

Author

Stanley Paul Moore, Bard CollegeFollow

Date of Submission

Spring 2016

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Music

Project Advisor 1

James Bagwell

Project Advisor 2

Luis-Garcia Renart

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Music in my life has been a key element and motivating force that factors into everything I do. My family would joke that my siblings and I were ‘doomed’ to play music, and for myself as the youngest of four siblings having been raised by two musician parents it rings especially true. It was just a matter of time for me to complete the sibling piano and violin quartet by picking up the cello. My parents, though they played other instruments, were predominantly singers, I specifically remember my father always telling me learn how to phrase as if singing, even though I am holding a cello.

And thus unsurprisingly, at the heart center of my music lies a love for the physical and mental act of singing. Even as a very young child, I was constantly referencing the act of singing to the more physically observable act of playing the cello and even further into many activities that some persons would not readily identify as ‘music’. Usually, my autobiographical program notes will include a list of hobbies and things that I like to do besides music, e.g. reading science fiction novels, playing sports, engaging in philosophy with someone, paintball, underwater basket weaving…etc. In my studies here at Bard I have come to hold an extremely broad and liberal view of exactly where and when it is that music takes place, to such an extent that that I had almost forgot the close connection I had fostered as a young musician with the idea of ‘singing’. But I have continued to foster this connection at Bard, to feel as if you are singing in everything you do. But, for one to sing one must breathe! And it is in breathing that I have found the music of the Baroque period of music to be especially viable, and was the reason for which my first concert has been title “Bach to Bach”. I have found that making this simple connection between any act (whatever it may be!) and breathing, whether it is music on another instrument or even a seemingly unrelated hobby like ‘underwater basket weaving’, provides an enormous well of information and feeling from which to draw upon or recieve. As such, I have benefited enormously from this way of thinking about music, not only because of the naturally available ‘inner voice’ comparison, but because it allowed me to see and draw ideas from the ‘singing’ and natural talent of others around me, such that I have come to believe that we are always surrounded with music in one way or another, whether it occurs naturally in our environment or from within the architecture of a concert hall.

Thus I have come to foster a full and broad appreciation for music in all of its copious diversity, but have also been given the opportunity to give such enormous diversity (especially that of my environment and my peers around me, as well as my own) the attention and catharsis betwixt persons that it deserves.

Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Moore, Stanley Paul, "Breath' and the Baroque" (2016). Senior Projects Spring 2016. 320.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2016/320