Sitting on a wide-open rooftop in New York City, then later in Central Park, world-renowned cello player Yo-Yo Ma performs Johann Sebastian Bach‘s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude, one of the most famous pieces of music written for the cello. The Empire State Building stands tall in the background while long threads dance and wrap around him before extending out around the globe. From KUSC:
Under the heading “Culture Connects Us”, Ma and his team asked artists from 36 countries to send in a video showing how they express themselves and help to bring their community together. In the video, you can see musicians and dancers, gardeners, cooks, weavers, soccer players, and paddle boarders from Argentina to Uzbekistan, Japan, Portugal, the US, South Africa and more.
The Culture of Us (2019) is a music video that celebrates what humans share across borders. It’s a component of Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Project, “a two-year journey to perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s six suites for solo cello in 36 locations around the world, music that is among the first Yo-Yo ever learned when he began playing the cello at age four.”
Related listening, via Ping and Echo: A truly lovely interview with Yo-Yo Ma on Song Exploder.
Next, watch That Cello Guy: The multi-screen performances of Cremaine Booker and some video that celebrate Bach:
• A giant forest xylophone plays Bach in this Japanese commercial
• Boomwhacker Bach: Prélude n°1 aux tubes musicaux
• Glenn Gould plays Bach
• An illuminated visualization of Bach’s The Well Tempered Clavier
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