Sherlock, Eurus, and Bach
I’ll write a proper meta once I’ve had a chance to re-watch, but.
When Eurus asks Sherlock to play for her. What he starts with is the opening chord of Bach Chaconne (from the finale of Partita 2).
And Eurus cuts him off and says,
“Not Bach, you clearly don’t understand it.”
So, here’s what you need to understand about the Bach Chaconne. Playing it well is considered something of the pinnacle of achievement in solo violin music. Not necessarily because it is technically difficult (though it is), but because it is so emotionally layered and complex and it requires a mature soloist to do it justice. Violinists have devoted their lives to this piece. Seriously, there’s a book, Violin Dreams, which Arnold Steinhardt wrote about his career as a violinist, and one of the things he discusses it is his relationship with the Bach Chaconne and his feeling that he’s finally gotten the hang of it after fifty years of performing it.
Check out NPR’s story on his book and the recordings of him playing the piece in 1966 and 2006.
What is so profound about the Chaconne? Bach is said to have written it after his wife died. And from my POV, this piece has always been about grief and transcending it. Anyway, some thoughts by people more articulate than me:
“As opposed to other composers, Bach targets the very young, the child, and people of a certain age, like me. And tries to leave out the middle. What I mean by this is that there are all kinds of mental, psychological dispositions from the opera that he totally shunned. Envy. Greed. Lust. Jealousy. I mean, this is the bread and butter of the opera. He never went there. He had no interest in that. His music tries to express things like, awe. Grace. Thanks. Fear. Trepidation. Hope. All kinds of sentiments a child can have, and an older person can have, but none of this sexual nonsense in the middle. And, so, in that sense, he thinks of death very differently from his own experience. He lost his parents before he was 10. He lost both of his parents, and then he lost half of his children. He lost 10 children. And, so, these are different, different times, different circumstances, and for us, it can be very surprising to see these reactions.
You can tell from his music that his emotion is raw. It is so controlled, but it is so profound. This is a man who truly grieves. I mean, you’ll hear the chaconne. It’s a dance. But it’s a grieving dance. I know, it seems like a paradox. But it’s extremely moving and — of somebody who clearly has enormous feeling. And, yet, it’s very controlled.
I have always thought that Sherlock would be a fan of Bach and unaccompanied Bach in particular (and not just because he’s playing Partita 1 when Jim walks into 221b in TRF), because it isn’t that “romantic.” It’s beautiful, precise, intelligent. And then Sherlock composed that sappy Irene Adler theme.
Which is of course, the next thing he plays when Eurus asks him to play something he’s written, and she asks him if he’s had sex. But I digress.
Anyway, the Bach Chaconne is raw emotion controlled. Your 14 yo child prodigy whiz kid may be able to play the notes of the Bach Chaconne correctly, but they lack the maturity to bring any depth to the music.
Eurus doesn’t see that depth in Sherlock. In the beginning, when he tells her her playing is beautiful, she tells him, “you don’t know when it’s beautiful, you only know when it’s right,” and he says “they’re often the same” (or something, like I said, I’ll re-write this when I’ve had a chance to re-watch).
So, when he first comes to see her, Eurus knows that Sherlock doesn’t have what it takes to play that solo.
But I suspect, that maybe by the end of TFP, he can. And that’s amazing.
And also I want Eurus and Sherlock to play Bach’s concerto for two violins, please. They have to have played it as children. It’s not that difficult a piece.
