Memory: Part 1

How does memorizing a piece work for you? What methods do you employ? Or is it just the faith that many, many times through it will render the music incapable of escaping from your brain? I have certainly seen the latter but it never quite stuck there as a permanent solution to the problem. At least not in my experience and not from those immediately surrounding me.

Well, I've been working out my own memory problems for the past year and have come up with something that works pretty well for me. It certainly is a huge step ahead of the previous haphazard non-method of ramming through a work and hoping that it sticks. 

This is a list of what I've been able to memorize using this new method:

Bach Suite 4, Dvorak concerto, Schumann concerto third movement, Scilienne by Marie Theresa                            von Paradis, Cassado suite first movement, a TV commercial jingle I played in Taiwan, Franceour sonata in E major first and second movements.

Any thoughts are welcome. Please comment. 

Johann Christian Bach: J.S. Bach's Youngest

I am currently reading a biography about J.S. Bach's youngest son, also a composer, by Heinz Gaertner. It is titled, John Christian Bach: Mozart's Friend and Mentor. This book has gotten me thinking. I'm half way through this veritable list of composers most have never heard of or heard only because of the music history courses offered through university. Try these names: Graun, Hasse, Martini, Abel, Wagenseil, Gassmann, et. al. Heard of them? Better yet, heard their music?!

Johann (John) Christian Bach

The youngest of Bach's sons is not known today as anything more than a son of the great Bach who composed a little and played keyboard. It's interesting that I picked this book up off my Dad's shelf and began to read simply because I knew nothing about him and thought that I could glean some more information about J.S. Bach via his son. It turns out that I found myself more interested in all the other composers mentioned in the biography who knew the Bachs in some way.