1st Variation
A graphic designer is employed designing covers for Bach records. Actual LP records, not CDs; she inexplicably and idiosyncratically is involved in this in 2007, which is never explained. She works on enormous canvesses, in the open air ruins of buildings. She visits churches for inspiration; begins an aborted romance; agonizes over a cover for his Triple Concerto. Suddenly, her canvasses start to disappear...2nd Variation
A documentary day in the life of three wingnuts, accompanied by the three movements of the Triple Concerto, one movement per subject. A montage of their conversations, rituals, habits, obsessions, encounters; presented without attempt for the music to interpret the subject, not the subject to interpret the spirit of the music. Three movements dispersed throughout the endurance of the film.
3rd Variation
The genealogical search for my Rodebach heritage, the closest I will ever come to the Bach legacy. Who was Augustus Rodebach, who immigrated to Michigan in the 1870's? Could I consider my great-great-grandfather a RodeBach? A Rode Bach? Exaggeration and lying in the service of this specious endeavor. Interviews with any other Bach variation namesakes.
A Thousand Clarinets, dir. Ján Rohác, 1964
A Thousand Clarinets, dir. Ján Rohác, 19644th Variation
BACH, the word, broken down and built back up- taxi CAB; sheep BAH; broken BAC; talentless HAC; crow CAH. Linguistic play with the typed word, over detourned images from Bach film moments: Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, A Thousand Clarinets, etc.
5th Variation
5th Variation
The public performance of Bach in unexpected circumstances: a punk show, outside a chicken processing plant for the workers, amongst tailgating football fans. Open to the collective improvisation of a hostile, appreciative, or confused audience.
