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On February 8, the European Union Studies Center, directed by Hugo Kaufmann, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which formed the European Economic Community (Common Market). This was one of the early steps toward the establishment of economic and cultural bonds to promote peace and democracy within Europe and thus avoid any repetition of the horrors of the Second World War. Through succeeding treaties and agreements, this 1957 organization comprising six members developed into the present day twenty-seven member European Union.
The celebration was highly imaginative and inspirational. Raymond Erickson, a professor of music at Queens College and The Graduate Center, gave an informal talk on Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), illustrating his points with recorded snippets of Bach's music. Bach was selected to mark this anniversary, said Professor Erickson, "because in his music, his attitude, his creative work, Bach brings together more strands of European civilization in a uniquely personal synthesis than any other composer; his music is the foundation of the study of music since the eighteenth century." While rarely venturing beyond the confines of Germany, he absorbed and combined the musical traditions of many European cultures, including those of Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, France, the Italian peninsula, the Netherlands, and Poland.
Professor Erickson's talk was followed by a performance by violinist Ellie Kang, who has played internationally as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician in many venues, including Alice Tully and Carnegie Halls. A doctoral candidate in music at The Graduate Center who also teaches at Queens College, Ms. Kang played the Ciaccona, the fifth and last movement of Bach's Partita No. 2 in D Minor for Solo Violin (ca. 1720), a collection of French dances. The most well-known, most difficult, and most revered of all Bach's solo violin pieces, the Ciaccona is usually played slowly and heavily, like a funeral march, to accommodate the fast notes and the difficult chords. However, influenced by her studies of historical performance practice under Professor Erickson at The Graduate Center, Ms. Kang played the notes fast and lightly, emphasizing the feel and rhythm of the baroque court dance that was Bach's primary model.
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