The Many Stories of Bill Fitzpatrick: Bach Partita and Ms Delay

A funny story about learning to play Bach

In this video, Prof. Fitzpatrick tells a story about Bach and his teacher Ms. Delay with an unexpected ending.

Released on December 1, 2021

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DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this video are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Virtual Sheet Music and its employees.

Video Transcription

I played the Allemande from the Bach D-minor Partita for Ms Delay. When I finished she looked at me and asked if I had read Donnington on Bach. I said no and she suggested that I should look at it to get a better understanding on playing Bach. So I did and also looked up Dolmetcsh, Leopold Mozart and Quantz. The next lesson I played the Bach again and she asked, "Did you look into Donnington book?," I said, yes and a few others as well. She was surprised as I played it exactly as I had before. "So what did you learn?" she asked and I said that I learned how to explain to her why everything that I had done the week before was right. I really don't know how she put up with me!
Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com
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Comments, Questions, Requests:

Tosh Hayashi * VSM MEMBER * on December 2, 2021 @1:31 pm PST
This is a rather puzzling anecdote. Did Ms Delay agree with you?
Did she suggest a different interpretation? What was the ultimate
outcome of that lesson?
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