Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

In a global society that often concentrates on what separates us, it becomes increasingly necessary to realize that which makes us one. Beyond our needs for food, water, and shelter, humans have a basic need to understand ourselves and those around us. Culture is our adaptation necessary for survival that narrates essential truths of the human condition. While culture can be experienced through all five senses, bringing my cello around the world has highlighted to me a synergism existing with music. This presentation, which requires no musical background, will explore the creative chord structures and ingenious melodic lines used by Johann Sabastian Bach to encode aspects of the human experience. Colloquial analysis of music theory and musicology will be complimented by live demonstration to hear how Bach portrays humanity with both objectivity and compassion in a way that ultimately transcends these compositional techniques. The presentation will conclude with an examination of how the physical constraints of the cello forced Bach to write innovative music that is purposefully left incomplete. Through live performance with audience participation, Bach’s full vision will be realized to build an understanding that completion can only be achieved through our collaboration. His music shows us that regardless of individual narrative, we all experience the same structure of life as a people. My goal is to share how culture, transmitted here by way of music, is a means of understanding both the personal and universal that can bring us together as one.