Saturday song #1
Cosy up this weekend with a smattering of Bergman-related musical entertainment! Every Saturday, we offer up a new song that relates to Bergman in some interesting manner. Over time, we plan on building up a pretty-little playlist suitable for any occasion, aptly entitled The Original Ingmar Bergman Spotify Playlist. (For more on Bergman and music, click here.)
Saturday song #1 is:
This is a no-brainer on our list. Johann Sebastian Bach's six cello suites each contain six movements and appear in six of Bergman's films. (This bodes well with the fact that both Bach and Bergman found mathematical equations quite entertaining). For the most part, the saraband movements are the ones used, some of them more than once, and no fewer than four Bach sarabandes will be featured as Saturday songs. Polar Prize winner Yo-Yo Ma's recording may be the most famous, but not necessarily the best. Bergman's favourite cellist was Torleif Thedéen.
Bach's cello suites are rather commonly used in films on the whole. (When commenting on Jamie Foxx's role in The Soloist, 'Annoyed cellist' complained on social media that Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 was in 'every movie that ever featured a cello piece ever'.)
Through a Glass Darkly was the first Bergman film without any original music whatsoever. The sarabande from Bach's Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor was not a poor musical replacement. The same piece resurfaced a few years later in All These Women.