Page 120 - Up Up and Away
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The Music Garden's Design
Hearing the Toronto Music Garden
Each dance movement within Bach's Suite No. 1 in G
Major for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007 corresponds
to a different section of the Toronto Music Garden:
PRELUDE
An undulating riverscape with curves and bends
The first movement of the suite imparts the feeling of a
flowing river through which the visitor can stroll. Granite
boulders from the southern edge of the Canadian Shield
are placed to represent a stream bed with low-growing
plants softening its banks. The whole is overtopped by an
alley of native Hackberry trees (Celtis occidentalis),
whose straight trunks and regular spacing suggest
measures of music.
ALLEMANDE
A forest grove of wandering trails
The allemande is an ancient German dance. Interpreted
here as a birch forest, the movement invites the visitor to
swirl inward to various contemplative sitting areas, that
move higher and higher up the hillside, culminating in a
rocky vantage point that looks over the harbour through
a circle of Dawn Redwood trees.
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