When we play an unaccompanied Bach suite we may compare ourselves to an actor in Shakespeare's day, creating scenery which did not exist at all, through the power of declamation and suggestion. So in Bach. There is but one voice -- and many voices have to be suggested.
Interpretation
The quote illustrates the creative interpretation involved in performing music, similar to acting without a complete set.
Pablo Casals draws a parallel between performing a solo Bach suite and acting in Shakespeare's time. In both scenarios, the performer must evoke imagery and emotion from a limited framework, using their skill and imagination to suggest richness and depth beyond what is overtly present. This reflects the artistry involved in music and performance, where single voices or instruments can convey an entire spectrum of expression, much like an actor brings a scene to life.
In practice
During a music class, to emphasize the interpretive nature of the performance.
Bach is the supreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.
In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.
The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.
I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.
To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world.
You can't just tell actors, especially young ones, to 'act happy' and expect them to do it. They must in some essential way be happy.
Female characters in literature are full. They're messy: they've got runny noses and burp and belch. Unfortunately, in film, female characters don't often have that kind of richness.
The anarchist painter is not the one who will create anarchist pictures, but the one who will fight with all his individuality against official conventions.
Sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.
When photographers get beyond copying the achievements of others, or just repeating their own accidental first successes, they learn that they do not know where in the world they will find pictures. Nobody does. Each photograph that works is a revelation to its supposed creator.
What does one prefer? An art that struggles to change the social contract, but fails? Or one that seeks to please and amuse, and succeeds?
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