Julia Project Week 1, and a Bach Moment

The goal--to learn every Bach chorale as published in the classic Breitkopf edition--to able to sing any line whilst playing the other three.

Week one: This is fun, and it is a mind-bender for those like me, trained as single-line orchestral musicians. But it's fun for just that reason.

I've spent great stretches of my life feeling vaguely restless and at times unhappy. After the privilege of marriage to my bride and raising two bright children with her, it finally dawned on me that the restlessness was borne out of boredom: If I'm not learning something, working on the next project, creating something, I'm not happy.

Everyone in the house is the same sort of person, including the border collies.

Bach scratches that itch. And ideas for my composing/arranging trade are beginning to flow fast and furious.

And, for this week's Bach moment: Rostropovich performing the prelude to the first Cello Suite. It's about two minutes long.

Bach worked in obscurity, in deeply difficult circumstances.

Rostropovich survived both WWII and Stalin in Russia.

Both endured to create this moment.