It could have been a Clarion Call for Our Future Survival when pianist Jeffrey Kahane took on the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
By John Lavitt
Beverly Hills, CA (The Hollywood Times) 06-03-2023
You would not think that Beverly Hills would be the location where the fate of the human race might be decided. On May 25, 2023, at 7:30 pm at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts when pianist and scholar Jeffrey Kahane took on the daunting task of playing Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations solo on a Steinway Grand Piano, it was not that place.
However, this night might have been that night because there is an argument to be made that the Goldberg Variations represent the very best. Indeed, it could be what we have to offer an alien race as proof of the human race’s value and a valid claim to ongoing survival despite so much evidence to the contrary.
I realize I have made some tremendous leaps of faith and even a somersault or two, so please forgive me and let us pause and backtrack for a moment or two. My assumption comes directly from Carl Sagan’s fictional postulation. In the science fiction novel Contact, later turned into a feature film starring Jody Foster, the first exposure to humanity by aliens is the television transmission of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.
Shown on closed circuit television, the transmission managed to produce one of the first broadcast signals strong enough to travel through space. Although the aliens found the images of Hitler and the Nazis to be disconcerting, the underlying music of Beethoven allowed them to recognize humanity’s value.
Indeed, extended to his work with Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, Carl Sagan believed the two ways human beings will most likely be able to communicate with advanced alien life forms is through math and music. Although math is universal, it is not expressive on the same level as music. As opposed to the visual arts and writing, which are tied so closely to the anthropomorphic form and the human experience, music has a kind of universality that transcends our limitations as a species.
From jazz and the Aboriginal didgeridoo to classical and electronica, the non-lyrical expressions of music might be our best chance at communicating with aliens in a manner that transcends our evolutionary limitations. After all, when you look at the vast timeline of the universe compared to the history of human consciousness, we are like monkeys with iPhones. From a universal perspective, we just got out of the trees, and, despite our arrogance as the dominant species on this planet, there is so much more that we do not know compared to what we do.
Given our environmental sacking of the world and ongoing expressions of violence, there is little evidence that we would be worthwhile members of a harmonious universal collective. Thus, when an alien species comes to Earth, it very well could be to decide whether or not to allow us to continue as the dominant species. Although AI might make this decision long before the aliens arise, the computers will not be as open to negotiation.
Given George Carlin’s observation that an alien species choosing to visit Earth is comparable to someone driving cross country to go to an Arby’s, it could be doubtful that they will ever bother to come. Still, if these super-advanced lifeforms show up, we might have a chance to prove our worth.
Upon seeing Jeffrey Kahane perform the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, there is an argument to make that his performance could be a green rubber stamp for the human race. Although it would be nice to have Glenn Gould, the modern master of the Goldberg Variations, still alive to represent us, I believe Jeffrey Kahane would do just fine. At the same time, Kahane would agree that having Glenn Gould would not be a bad thing to have in humanity’s back pocket. Kahane intimately understands the art form’s history as a scholar and musicologist.
Introducing the performance on their website, the Wallis describes him as follows:
“Equally at home at the piano or on the podium, Jeffrey Kahane is recognized worldwide for his mastery of a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach and Mozart to the music of our time. After 20 years as Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Kahane makes his Wallis debut with his interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, long regarded as the most serious and ambitious work for the keyboard. Kahane has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Chicago and San Francisco symphonies among many others.”
The description indicates that the Goldberg Variations are “long regarded as the most serious and ambitious work for the keyboard.” When you listen to Kahane play the Goldberg Variations, beyond being awed by the genius of Bach, you realize that they are a perfect representation of human life.
The variations are so intricate and contradictory while maintaining an undeniable beauty. While one variation captures the longing of the human heart, the following shifts into a demand for focus as the responsibilities of everyday life come into play. The shifts are remarkable because they do not undermine but unquestionably contradict.
Indeed, our lives are far from simple, and the complexity of being fragile and mortal human beings (“bags of mostly water” as an alien life form describes us in a Star Trek episode) is contradictory. While one Goldberg Variation expresses the gentle eloquence of reflection and philosophical meditation, the next captures the noise and bustle of a busy household. Bach’s genius is that he does not prioritize one form of existence over another. Everything has its value, and every moment is intrinsically meaningful.
Thus, when an ultra-advanced alien intelligence actually comes to Earth to judge whether or not we are worthy of being the dominant species on a lovely little planet, perhaps we should have a pianist like Jeffrey Kahane play them the Goldberg Variations. Maybe such a performance will demonstrate why we deserve one more chance at getting this stewardship of a life-affirming planet right. Let us hope we get the Green Rubber Stamp for the human race instead of the Red Rubber Stamp on our application for ongoing stewardship of the planet Earth.
However, we are terribly flawed because we are so homo sapient: Nervous little monkeys scared that there will be nothing left to scavenge when we arrive at the kill site. However, in that endless wave of anxiety and fear, there are moments of transcendent beauty and great value.
As Jeffrey Kahane revealed at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach might just be our best bet to making it past this almost unimaginable test and crossing the Rubicon into the next evolutionary level of harmonious life and, dare I go so far to say, a path to actual enlightenment.
Photos by Rob Latour
