All language subtitles for The.Silence.Before.Bach.2007

Slowly, slowly... Good dog.

What are you doing here?

You said you didn't want
to do this route anymore?

Yeah, that was the idea,

but I decided against it.

Only if you've got ideas
can you decide against them.

-See ya!
-So long!

You are a quiet, discreet guy.

You probably prefer
to eat in peace

and take cat naps during the trip.

But I feel like
telling someone my story.

So here's the deal:

You make yourself more sociable

and I'll pay for your breakfast...

Then you listen
until you get sleepy

and I'll let you sleep until
we get to the German border.

We haven't got much of a reputation.

You don't?

People think we're dirty,

and always breaking the law.

And that we carry a gun
in the glove compartment.

Really?

You'll see when you've been
in this for a while.

Just imagine driving for hours,
crossing different countries,

and all these cars
around you that think

you shouldn't be allowed
on the same road as them.

You've got to be
really strong minded.

-How do you manage?
-What?

Being strong minded.

You have to have a way
to let off steam...

because the pressure is too much.

So what do you do?

-What do you mean what do I do?
-To let off steam.

-What do I do?
-Yeah.

Well, like everyone else,
try to find something

that gives me breathing space.

And I'm not talking about
making it on the internet.

At home we always played
chamber music

with my brothers:

Mozart, Schubert.

Germany!

Germany is full of soccer fans!

When they're not playing or singing,
they're shouting. They can shout!

Or else,
they are playing and singing.

How about that...

Sometimes I need to talk

with a part of me
that isn't in this damn truck.

What about those virgins
you've got out there?

The best investment I ever made,
1.000 euros for each one!

A lot of people mix up superstition
with everything else...

with values.

You know what?
I don't think they are that far off.

-Are you really carrying a gun?
-What gun?

You said before you had a gun
in the glove compartment.

Does that bother you?

I don't know, man...

I have no idea how
things work in your world,

but I know how they work in mine.

I know when the merchandise
is rotting,

and how to get along
with the police on the road.

Who is he?

He's the new Kantor
of St. Thomas's church.

-A believer and a musician.
-I hope he's good!

I'm sorry to keep you waiting.

My work load here is so great

that I have few opportunities
to see visitors.

A musical composition,
by right should be pleasant,

it must please the ear
and satisfy the mind.

I hope you will find these qualities

in the notes I am giving you.

Let me play
one of these variations for you.

I have used
the new Neapolitan technique

of crossing the hands.

I am sure you will discover
many new things.

The undetermined
development of the theme

is compensated by a profoundly
harmonious structure.

Fascinating.

I've never heard anything as deep.

Your music is a pure,
lucid exposition.

It brings forth new emotions
never felt before.

Please accept this golden cup

with 100 gold Louis

from the hands
of my esteemed Goldberg,

and although the gift
were multiplied a thousand times,

it would never be enough
to equal the value of your art.

Please tell the Count

that his generous gift
is not as valuable

as the attention he gives my music
and this, his humble servant.

Hello Mr. Schuchart!
How's it going?

Thanks for asking.

-How about you?
-Good, thank you.

-How's your wife?
-Also well, thanks.

-And the kids?
-Not too well.

They are sick!
I hope they get better soon.

Thank you very much.
Hot chocolate as usual?

Yes. Thank you!

Your hot chocolate,
Mr. Schuhart!

Great, thank you.

Is my wig on straight?

-Just perfect, Mr. Schuchart.
-Thank you.

-Have a good day!
-Thanks.

See you later.

Welcome honest working people
from near and far.

I need not introduce myself.

I have returned again to Leipzig
to show you the places that were

most important to Bach in this city.

St. Thomas's convent
and St. Thomas's school

were founded in 1212.

The members of St. Thomas's choir

are part of a tradition that is
almost 800 years old.

In the beginning, St. Thomas's
was a small Romanesque church.

Later, the heart of the church
was enlarged in the Gothic style.

All the architectural styles
are present in the tower.

The nave is late Gothic,

dating from around 1500.

The most important thing
in the church

is Johann Sebastian Bach's tomb.

This is his final resting place,

which is visited by admirers
from all over the world.

I arrived in Leipzig in 1723

and worked here until 1750.

I was kantor of St. Thomas

and musical director
of the city of Leipzig.

As such, I was responsible
for the religious music

for four Leipzig churches,

for the municipal musicians

and for the teaching
of music and Latin

to the students
of the school of St. Thomas.

I was not employed by the church
but by the Leipzig city hall.

My time in Leipzig
was the most productive of all.

I wrote about 500 compositions,

including the "Magnificat",

"the Mass in B minor",
"the Passions", "the Oratorio",

"The Art of the Fugue",
"The Well Tempered Clavier",

"The Goldberg Variations",

"A Musical Offering"
for Frederik the Great,

some 300 religious
and secular cantatas

and quite a number of motets.

Ladies and Gentleman!

We'd like to welcome you
aboard the motor boat "Bad Schandau".

We hope you have
a pleasant trip to Pillnitz.

[Like Odysseus]
[on his trip to Ithaca,]

[if you listen closely]
[to the river]

[you will recognize]
[some delightful melodies]

[that were played for the owner]

[of the castle,]

[Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk,]
[Russian plenipotentiary minister]

[to the court of the Elector]
[of Saxony in Dresden.]

[Count Keyserlingk]
[was a sickly person]

[who suffered from]
[a terrible affliction: insomnia.]

[He therefore asked]
[his personal clavichord player,]

[Johann Gottlieb Goldberg,]
[to ask the composer Bach,]

[who had been touched]
[by the hand of God,]

[for a series of delicate variations,]

[that would deliver Count Keyserlingk]
[into the arms of Morpheus]

[and also raise his spirit on high.]

[Dresden, Prague,]
[Budapest or Paris]

[are all big cities]
[with rivers running through them.]

[Through these rivers]
[a European idea took form.]

[Schiller, Goethe,]
[Mozart, Weber or Wagner,]

[were inspired by the rivers.]

[Dresden is in the very heart]
[of Europe.]

[If we were to rise over this plain,]

[we would see the Urals.]

[The Elbe is one of the main forms]
[of communication]

[in this old continent,]

[a stream of commerce and ideas,]

[but it also carries scars...]

[Let us not forget]
[what Gerhard Hauptmann said]

[in 1945:]

["Those who no longer know]
[how to cry will learn again]

[faced with the devastation]
[of Dresden."]

You pig!

Christoph-Friedrich,

leave your sister alone.

HE WHO SINGS, PRAYS TWICE

Christoph-Friedrich!

Find the pureness of the music.

What can help you do this?
A precise, strict order.

And how do you achieve it?

With your breathing,

peace and the strength of God.

And, if you are
an honest person,

your music will also be honest
and balanced and full of beauty.

Do you understand, my boy?
Come!

Play the prelude.

Listen to the harmony
and its progression,

its tension.

You're doing very well.
You can go now, son.

I would like two apples...

This cheese,
can I have this piece?

You take the meat
and stuff it with garlic and lard.

Salt it and put it
in a greased pan in the oven.

When it's roasted
and crisp on the outside

add some broth

and let it cook on a low fire.

If you let it cook slowly
it has time to develop its aroma.

Then you add a little rosemary.

It changes the whole
taste of the meat.

I also recommend that you add
some diced potatoes

all around the meat.

You will have to add
more lard so the potatoes don't burn.

So then: lard!

No, no. That is not exactly right.

I never use rosemary,

but I add
finely crushed hazelnuts

right before serving.

There's no arguing
with preferences my dear lady,

and a recipe is not dogma.

When things are well seasoned,

with just the right sensitivity
and necessary delicacy,

they will always have
an excellent taste.

Please remember to order
some nice fresh brains

for next Wednesday.

My master would rather go through hell
than have a Wednesday

without breaded brains.

Have I ever failed you?
Don't worry,

and please remind Herr Mendelssohn

that besides this tender veal

he can also enjoy our lamb,
a succulent tongue.

I also recommend ordering
a whole pork

which we can deliver
to the house.

During the hunting season
we also have chickens,

pheasants, hares,

turkey and rabbit.

All this seasoned with herbs
brought from all over the world.

And most important of all:

wine mulled with cinammon,
cinammon!

And, best of all:
our geese livers.

It is the best thing
we've got today.

Remember what I say.

[Not a single one of]
[Johann Sebastian Bach's]

[compositions]

[was printed or distributed]

[until 50 years after his death.]

[But it wasn't until 1829,]

[in Mendelssohn's time,]

[When the "St. Matthew Passion"]

[was again interpreted]
[under his baton.]

[Popular legends have grown]

[around this discovery,]

[like the one about the butcher,]

[Mendelssohn's butcher:]

[It is a wonderful story]

[that tells how Mendelssohn's butcher]

[used sheets of music]

[for the "St. Matthew Passion"]
[to wrap the meat.]

[He used sheets of music]

[for the "St. Matthew Passion"]
[to wrap the meat.]

These types of poor stockings like

those of a suburban housewife

tell us two things clearly:

First: they are outdated.

Second: they belong
to a sphere of power.

Two good excuses
for being different in peace.

Oh, my mother's undies!

Blind undies,
shameful little pocket.

I know, I know we will
become dust:

that protects us,

On the one hand being crazily piggy.

On the other, obeying who I wanted

They will never talk about you;

and that you were
a fountain of silence.

How long will you be
staying in Leipzig?

A couple of weeks.

What's on the program?

Locatelli, Frescobaldi,

Telemann and Bach's two sons.

Carl Philipp Emmanuel
and...?

Johann Christian.

Ah, the youngest...
Very well.

Have fun and call once in a while.

Yes?

No in a motel...

It's a real bad storm...

Haven't I always come through?

No way, no!

I'll be there tomorrow
around noon.

So long!

Did you get what I ordered?

I haven't got Rossini's letters,
but I found Gustafsson's book.

"The Stillness of the World
before Bach"

There must have been a world

before the "Trio sonata in D major",

A world before
the "Partita in A minor",

But what was that world like?

A Europe of empty spaces
with no resonance,

full of ignorant instruments,

where the "Musical Offering"
and the "Well Tempered Clavier"

had not yet gone through a keyboard.

Without Bach,
God would be diminished.

Without Bach,
God would be third rate.

Bach is the only thing
that reminds us

that the world is not a failure
and after Bach...

Liszt is unbearable.

Cioran!

Oh, by the way, I found something
that may interest you.

"Musiques d'un autre monde",
Simon Laks?

He was a Polish Jew.

A composer and orchestra conductor.

He earned his living
playing the piano

in movie houses and restaurants.

He was imprisoned in Beaune,
in Drancy, in Auschwitz and in Dachau.

They set him free in 1945
and he wrote this book in Paris

to evoke the memory and the suffering
of those annihilated.

And above all,

to analyze the role
of music in the extermination.

I recall Levi's description
very well,

how the music made them
pick up their legs and...

Simon Laks conducted
those musicians.

I didn't know you were
so interested in the holocaust.

You're the one that's always
saying that music saves you, right?

Read it!

Christmas Eve 1943,

the commandant orders Simon Laks
and his musicians

to play Christmas carols

for the women interned
in the camp hospital.

The Polish women begin to cry
and their sobs

were louder than the music.

They screamed:

enough, let us die in peace.

Music hurts.

In Leipzig we were very lucky

because it was sunny
the whole time...

Hi. How did it go?

I hardly slept
because of the storm...

Here's the story.

It's a baby grand
that you will have to...

Give me a piece of paper.

Here's the address.

It's a three-story building,

the second and third floor
are a duplex.

-Did you call the crane?
-Yes.

So, they're semidetached houses,

you won't be able to get it
in through the front door...

-How about the back?
-It's impossible, there's a garden.

So... the crane
will meet you there at noon,

with the 35-meter jib.

There is a terrace

-in the back.
-Isn't it a balcony?

No, it's not...
it's a long wide terrace,

and you are going
to get the piano...

on it...

There are sliding doors

and the piano fits through,
no problem.

Right?

Come on,
I'll show you the piano!

This is it!

-It's an antique...
-Yeah.

This piece

is more than a hundred years old.

It has to be treated with care.

My ancestor's tomb

has been there
for approximately 50 years.

The masculine branch
of the family died out in 1843.

The feminine branch

is still very active.

So, here we are finally at the office
of the present Kantor of St. Thomas,

Professor Biller,
the present-day Bach.

He is an extremely busy man

but he is waiting for you.

Training here is very strict.

We have rehearsals every day
with the choir

because we sing every Friday evening

in St. Thomas's,

a cantata on Saturday afternoons

and Mass on Sundays.

Most of the members
of St. Thomas's choir

come from non-religious families,

which at first is a problem,
however,

after working
with the spiritual texts,

and the music that
accompanies them,

most members of the choir

ask to be baptized during
their time in St. Thomas's church.

The work of the choir is,

above all in a secularized society,

to promote religious music.

If you take into account
that every Friday evenings,

Saturday afternoons and Sundays,

the choir has to sing something new,

you can imagine the pressure.

A lot has to get done
in very little time.

It is getting late
and I have a rehearsal.

But I can tell you a bit more
about the choir

and the school.

-Come this way please.
-It will be a pleasure. Thank you.