Johann Sebastian Bach - Cello Suites

by Anon

My most treasured love song is not really a song; it would be more precise to call it "love music."

It may sound fairly highbrow when I say that the music that feeds my heart and soul is the venerated Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites: six 5-part pieces written for the solo cello, that formed a musical backbone to my budding relationship with my future husband.

We didn't discover these pieces together; at 40-something, our musical tastes and experiences were rather well-developed and we both had familiarity and fondness with Bach. But the Cello Suites seemed to follow us around as we were falling in love.

One day, on the spur of the moment, we ducked inside a small chamber music society's venue and there was a young man playing three of these soaring pieces. Soon after, we went to a show of experimental music. The Cello Suites showed up there, too, played on improvised instruments.

When we reached a dating anniversary, he gave me a wrapped CD - the Cello Suites played by Pablo Cassals; I handed him a similarly wrapped package - the same music, played by Janos Starker. So together we bought the Yo-yo Ma version and listened to each player in his time bring us the music we were beginning to know by heart - literally.

We went to Heidelberg, Germany together. As we walked through the old university square, we saw a somehow familiar figure ambling along the cobblestone streets with a large trunk on his back. We got closer and saw it was the famous cellist, Anner Bylsma, with his instrument. We dared call to him and exclaim that we enjoyed his music-making. Very kindly, Mr. Bylsma invited us to be his guests at his solo concert that night - he would be playing, of course - the Bach Cello Suites.

So the love song of my life is really a Baroque gift from the past that we are fortunate to have preserved among us today.

I can't hear these pieces without reliving those early days of love.

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