Musicians of Old Did It Their Way--the Hard Way : Who Knows, Bach Might Have Amounted to Something Really Big if He’d Had Access to 20th-Century Technology

A famous legend about Johann Sebastian Bach recounts his harsh journey, by foot, of more than 200 miles, across half of Germany, to hear Dietrich Buxtehude, a Dane who was perhaps the most talented organist of his day.

Bach, so the story goes, spent 45 cruel winter days hiking the hilly terrain that separates Arnstadt in central Germany, where he was living, from Lubeck, the city near the Denmark border where Buxtehude was playing in a church.

Scholars now point out that Johann probably didn’t make all, or even most, of that trek by foot after all, but more likely hired himself out as a valet and got a lift. Yet, no matter how he got there, he did go to great lengths--literally and figuratively--just to hear one guy play.

Stories like this make you wonder: If Bach hadn’t had to spend so much time traipsing around Western Europe, how much greater a musical legacy might he have left--in addition to his paltry 1,100-plus works for organ, keyboard, chorale, orchestra and other assorted instruments?

Just think what other musical wonders Bach might have had time to create if he’d had access to a plane, not to mention a fax machine, a telephone, a tape recorder and a radio.

I started thinking along these lines while getting ready for an informal living-room performance that a pianist friend and I will be giving for some family and friends. Considering that we aren’t even writing our own music--we’re leaving that to Brahms, Saint-Saens and, yes, Bach--it’s still been an extensive exercise in telecommunications to set this recital up.

I found the score for the main piece we are preparing--the Brahms Clarinet Sonata No. 1--a while back at a music store in Anaheim. That was easy, though it was maybe a 25- to 30-mile round trip, which in Bach’s day could have been a two-day excursion, particularly hoofing it on one’s own hooves.

After a few rehearsals, we decided we wanted a little something extra--maybe one or two short pieces to complement the Brahms. The local music stores had little to offer, so each of us started calling sheet-music suppliers in Los Angeles and beyond. I ordered one book from Palo Alto, which is just shy of San Francisco. Thanks to the phone, a handy credit card number and United Parcel Service, three days later I had music in hand for a dozen short pieces that were just what we had in mind.

In the 18th Century, had a German clarinetist (klarinettist) lived the same 400 miles from Bach that separated me from the music (musik) in Palo Alto, it might have taken him the better part of a month (longen-timen) to get his hands on it.

Complications only continued once I received the music. The next problem was trying to get together with my collaborator so I could hand over the piano part to him. Hmmm. “Tuesday’s bad for me, I have to go someplace after work.” “Wednesday night is no good--I’ve got a meeting.”

Then technological inspiration struck.

“What’s your fax number?”

Within half an hour, my friend had an exact electronic reproduction of the piano part in his hot little fingers.

It was mind-boggling: 30 minutes. In the 1700s, it probably took Bach that long to scribble out the first 12 bars. Of a third violin part.

Imagine if he had owned a radio, or if Buxtehude had access to a portable cassette recorder and a Federal Express office: Bach could have gained the instrumental inspiration he sought in the comfort of his own home and maybe saved himself a little frostbite in the process.

The impact of technology on the dissemination of music is pretty well documented. The advent of phonograph records not only made music available to more people than ever, but also helped accelerate the rate at which music evolves.

Instead of taking months or years while an individual musician or group hand-carried the latest Haydn symphony from one town to another, records and radio make the newest styles of music available instantly across the country, or around the world.

That’s one reason music in the 20th Century has gone through such staggering stylistic changes and mutations. If the same tools were around in Bach’s day, the Baroque period would have lasted two weeks, tops.

And just think of the biggest advantage of all: Sometime around Feb. 23, 1843, disco would have come and gone and we could have been spared completely.