A note of information: when I received this letter, July 21, I was on the road touring. My heart leapt. Dr. Julius Lester, now approaching ninety years of age, is legendary, a true luminary. He has written more than forty books, won numerous academic and literary awards, was named National Professor of the Year Silver Medal Award in 1985, and Massachusetts State Professor of the Year and Gold Medal Award for National Professor of the Year in 1986. On top of that, he (with Pete Seeger) wrote the first instruction book for twelve-string guitar that I purchased and learned from back in the 1960s! I am so proud to have received this. But more, the idea that what I have done, transmitted only electronically, has touched someone whom I’ve never met is a wonder of the modern era, possible only for the last 100 years or so. I hope that many, many more people will allow themselves to be so touched and so moved as Dr. Lester is. The world could use more people with that kind of sensitivity and sensibility!
The work of art to which he refers appears here.
Dear Steven Hancoff,
A few weeks ago, my daughter, Lian Amaris, gave me your Bach Cello Suites which you had so generously sent to her to give to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I have no words to tell you adequately how deeply I am moved by your transcriptions and performance. And it may be heresy to say this, but I prefer what you've done to the Yo Yo Ma recordings.
The recordings led me to your biography of Bach, and that is equally exciting. A word of explanation: I played classical piano through college and managed to reach a level where another student and I performed publicly the first movement of the D Minor Piano Concerto in a two piano arrangement. One of my earliest childhood memories is playing simplified arrangements of Bach for my piano lessons.
When I retired from the University of Massachusetts in 2004, my retirement present to myself was the Complete Bach cd set (Hänssler). Seldom a day goes by that I do not listen to Bach. A few years ago I began to wonder who was this man, and so began reading biographies. My favorite, while not strictly a biography, was James R. Gaines' Evening in the Palace of Reason. It gave me more of a sense of Bach the person than the more academic and analytical books.
But your biography is the book I've been waiting for. I love how you have taken advantage of the visual possibilities books have now, so that the illustrations contemporary with Bach, the work of contemporary artists inspired by Bach add dimensions of experience that enliven and enrich the reading experience.
And I am one of those people who, inspired by Bach, created a digital painting which I will send in a separate e-mail.
This is an unabashed fan letter. I love what you have done in music, words, and images.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
acommonplacejbl.blogspot.com
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