Word: bachs
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...Johann Nikolaus Forkel in J.S. Bach's Life, Art and Works. For Patriotic Admirers of True Musical...
...possible that the country of Bach, Handel and Goethe could also be the country of Himmler and Eichmann? It is a question that has vexed the world for decades. Perhaps a better question is: What other country could it have been? The Germans have long been able to hold two opposing ideas in mind and remain untroubled by their mutual exclusivity. Only in Germany could Weimar and Buchenwald coexist, each denying the other's nature. "I wish and ask that our rulers who have Jewish subjects exercise a sharp mercy toward these wretched people," wrote Luther in 1543. "They must...
...Forkel's patriotic exhortation is inscribed on a plaque attached to the wall of Prince Leopold's castle in Cothen. But someone standing in the run-down Cothen castle courtyard--part of the building is used as a state prison today--would be hard pressed to imagine how Bach could have been inspired by his surroundings. The Saxon plain is as flat as Kansas, its tiny villages grim studies in brown and gray; the ferocious reforming spirits of Lutheranism and Communism have done their work well. Similarly, it is hard to reconcile Luther's tiny deathbed in Eisleben with...
...Bach, as vital a man as there ever was, has inevitably become part of that myth: in the Thomaskirche, his stained-glass window is near Luther's. In East Germany, as in most of the world, he has overshadowed his countryman Handel, who had the effrontery to defect to the West before it was politically necessary. And there Bach is praised for giving "artistic expression to the people's aspirations and endeavors for peace." But he is impervious to political manipulation, as Luther and Wagner are not. He was not seduced by the devil, who tempted so many others...
...courage for once to yield yourselves to your impressions . . . to let yourselves be elevated, yes, to let yourselves be taught and inspired and encouraged for something great; only do not always think that everything is vain if it is not some abstract thought or idea!" The triumph of Bach was that he did just that. His imposing musical structures touch the heart directly; Bach was, after all, a musician, not a philosopher or theologian. The sad part is that, even now, so many refuse to believe it, and see only the wig instead...