I hear you and I wish I shared your sentiment — there’s lots of great music by Wagner, etc.
Basically I feel that if you want to enjoy European culture you have to deal with the deep prejudices that simmered for centuries and often manifest in the art, and certainly in the private lives of the artists.
I’m enjoying all this music in a secular way but I also think it can’t be fully extricated from Its religious source. That’s what inspired JSB…
I'm no expert (just a lapsed Episcopalian), but this seems like standard biblical language about the Christ story—Israel, the Old Testament followers of Moses (and by extension all descendants of Adam & Eve), are "fallen" due to sin ("the imprisonment and slave chains of Satan"), and redeemed by the messiah: "In this way now today is transformed the anxious suffering with which Israel was distresed and burdened into pure salvation and grace." I'm sure there was plenty of antisemitism in Bach's time but I don't think this is an example.
I wonder if I'd have anything novel to say about the Beatles! Still figuring out next year as I work my way through this one. I'll have a half-way update post in the next week or so.
Thank you for showing me something new and beautiful, have never heard this piece before.
I was raised in a devout Evangelical household, my Dad was a Baptist preacher. I rebelled intellectually and emotionally at the age of 12 and became an atheist (thanks Isaac Asimov for giving me the final push in your autobiography...). The overtly religious aspects of Bach have always left me cold, and it's one reason I have always preferred his instrumental pieces. But whatever you hear in this piece that is beautiful can't possibly come from antisemitism, that is not a potential source of truth or beauty. That comes from a deeper place, whatever Bach's thoughts were on this topic.
I hear you and I wish I shared your sentiment — there’s lots of great music by Wagner, etc.
Basically I feel that if you want to enjoy European culture you have to deal with the deep prejudices that simmered for centuries and often manifest in the art, and certainly in the private lives of the artists.
I’m enjoying all this music in a secular way but I also think it can’t be fully extricated from Its religious source. That’s what inspired JSB…
Thanks for sharing your story
I'm no expert (just a lapsed Episcopalian), but this seems like standard biblical language about the Christ story—Israel, the Old Testament followers of Moses (and by extension all descendants of Adam & Eve), are "fallen" due to sin ("the imprisonment and slave chains of Satan"), and redeemed by the messiah: "In this way now today is transformed the anxious suffering with which Israel was distresed and burdened into pure salvation and grace." I'm sure there was plenty of antisemitism in Bach's time but I don't think this is an example.
This is reassuring, thanks Ian!
Some wonderful technical analysis here. Impressive and informative. Beatles survey next year?
Thanks, Herb.
I wonder if I'd have anything novel to say about the Beatles! Still figuring out next year as I work my way through this one. I'll have a half-way update post in the next week or so.
Thank you for showing me something new and beautiful, have never heard this piece before.
I was raised in a devout Evangelical household, my Dad was a Baptist preacher. I rebelled intellectually and emotionally at the age of 12 and became an atheist (thanks Isaac Asimov for giving me the final push in your autobiography...). The overtly religious aspects of Bach have always left me cold, and it's one reason I have always preferred his instrumental pieces. But whatever you hear in this piece that is beautiful can't possibly come from antisemitism, that is not a potential source of truth or beauty. That comes from a deeper place, whatever Bach's thoughts were on this topic.