Tom Allen takes Bach for a walk in the snow
Tom Allen has another story up his sleeve.
Yes, that jack of all trades Tom Allen — CBC on-air host of “About Time” and “This is My Music,” author, concert host and musician — is touring his latest chamber musical, “J.S. Bach’s Long Walk in the Snow,” which hits the Burlington Performing Arts Centre’s Community Studio Theatre, 440 Locust St., on Sunday at 4 p.m.
Advertised as a coming-of-age odyssey with music, adventure and romance, the show centres round the activities of Johann Sebastian Bach in his grandfather’s sleepy town of Arnstadt, on the edge of the scenic Thuringian Forest, and his hike to the glittering Hanseatic port city of Luebeck.
Here’s a taste of that story as ascertained from the music history books. Rest assured, Allen will narrate the whole enchilada, lock, stock and barrel in his own inimitable manner, and explain how the great man got great.
It’s 1703 and an 18-year-old Bach travels from Weimar by private coach to officially examine the newly built organ in Arnstadt’s New Church. He impresses the authorities with his playing and ends up applying for the post of organist there. He receives a certificate of appointment and accepts it by handshake.
But things in Arnstadt go slightly awry.
“He was having a terrible time at work,” explained Allen. “It was his first job and although he was a superb musician and a superb organist, they (the church consistory) didn’t tell him until after he’d signed the contract that he also was supposed to be teaching a group of university-aged students older than him and nowhere near the musician he was.”
Uh-oh, that spells trouble. Sure enough, one summer evening in 1705, Bach is walking home when he’s jumped by one of the older students and a street fight ensues.
Fortunately for all involved, Bach doesn’t draw his dagger.
“He knew nothing about management and he really was in over his head,” said Allen of Bach. “And he was abusive to them (the students) and they hated him for it. Things were really falling apart badly. My thesis is that Bach looked around and said to himself, ‘What am I doing wrong and who do I know who could teach me this'?"
Answer: the erudite Dieterich Buxtehude, organist at the Marienkirche in Luebeck, almost 50 years Bach’s senior, an indisputable expert, virtuoso, composer and leader of the widely acclaimed Abendmusiken, an Advent spiritual concert series.
So, Bach requests and is granted a four-week leave from the New Church to check out Buxtehude. He leaves in mid-to-late November, making the 400-kilometre trek to Luebeck on foot.
However, he doesn’t stay for four weeks, but almost four times as long. Even though Bach hires one of his cousins to sub for him, you think the consistory is happy with their organist going AWOL over Christmas?
Not on your life. Yep, when Bach returns to Arnstadt, he’s got some 'splainin' to do.
And just what exactly is Bach up to in Luebeck during the winter of 1705-06? Well, here’s where Allen undertakes some highly romanticized speculation. Psst, spoiler alert: there’s a Christmas romance.
“I’m entirely transparent about the fact that the number of really verifiable historical facts in this story is pretty sparse and pretty few,” said Allen. “In telling the story, I don’t hide from the audience what is fact and what is speculation on my part.”
Allen has previously presented this show in British Columbia, Stratford, Ottawa, Owen Sound, Guelph and Collingwood. Though the storyline has remained the same, Allen’s cast hasn’t.
For the Burlington show, Allen’s musical colleagues include his better half, Lori Gemmell, on harp, who, by the way, vets all his ideas and writing, violinist Yolanda Bruno, accordionist Michael Bridge, vocalist Patricia O’Callaghan, and Kevin Fox on vocals, cello and guitar. And yes, Allen will be bringing along his trusty trombone.
“With that many great musicians on stage, it’s a wise man who has a trombone and plays it little,” said Allen modestly.
There are a few musical pillars to the show, such as an arrangement of the “Wachet auf (Sleeper’s Awake)” chorale prelude and Gemmell’s transcription of Rachmaninoff’s arrangement of the “Gavotte” from Bach’s “Violin Partita No. 3.”
However, most of the music isn’t set in stone, but selected and decided upon by the cast. And their selections aren’t limited to Bach.
“The purpose of the story in this case is to bring an image and a feeling to the music and then the purpose of the music is to amplify what has come before in the story,” said Allen. “And if we allow ourselves to be more imaginative and less bound by the era, then we can go further afield and make references to things that are not from that time or from that style.”
So, in other words, expect to be surprised and entertained. Anyone up for some Sofia Gubaidulina?
Oh, nearly forgot. You know what Arnstadt’s New Church was renamed to in 1935.
Yup, you guessed it: the JohannSebastian-Bach-Kirche after their dearly departed former organist who gave them such wonderful music and so many headaches.
Tickets at burlingtonpac.ca or call 905-681-6000: $49.50 (all-in).
Sunday at 3 p.m. in West Plains United Church, 549 Plains Rd. W., Burlington, the Two Families Band (Valentyn, Irina, Julia and Oleg) perform a varied program of Ukrainian folk songs, jazz and blues hits, plus originals in various musical styles.
Free admission, donations welcome.