Bach Project - João Carlos Martins
João Carlos Martins
First I lost my right hand.
When I lost my right hand I told myself,
well, I can play with my left hand.
I can do transcriptions.
I can play the Chaconne - the Brahms transcription.
And then I lost my left hand too.
And then I didn’t know where could I go.
At that time I realized that I could conduct
and this was the importance of Bach in my life.
He kept me alive.
In 1717 the Duke, he sent Bach to jail.
Bach, he was arrested in Weimar
because he wanted to break a contract.
And for one month he was in jail, incarcerated.
When he was in jail, he decided to start the Well-Tempered Clavier.
So, the one month Bach spent in jail perhaps
was the most important month in musical history.
With Bach, you have to use something
inside of yourself that you cannot explain.
You cannot explain with words.
You only can only explain
with the inspiration of your mind,
with the inspiration of your heart.
And today if I can use only my thumb,
I try to play some of his music.
Bach with two notes,
one on the right hand
and the other with the left hand,
he can build a cathedral.
