TIME, DEATH, ETERNITY: IMAGINING THE SOUL OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: George E. Atwood, Ph.D. Rutgers University. PART 6: Let us try again to picture the young Bach’s grief, the situation in which he found himself following the loss of his beloved family members. Moving forward over the years to 1727, Bach wrote Cantata 198: The Trauer Ode (Ode to Mourning/Grief), composed to mark ceremonies in honor of the recently deceased Christiane Eberhardine, wife of August II, King of Poland. I am again imagining the significance Bach’s music had for its own composer, and using the resulting images in an effort to picture his experience of the tragedies of his life. This beautiful cantata begins as follows: Lass Fuerstin, lass noch einen Strahl aus Salems Sterngewoelben schiessen. Und sieh, mit wieviel Traenenguessen umringen wir dein Ehrenmal. Princess, Let a ray shoot out of the starry vaults of Salem [Jerusalem]. And see with how much of a downpouring of tears we encircle your time of honor. The departed one is here visualized as casting a look back at the world – sending a ray from the stars -and witnessing the overwhelming grief of all of those who loved her. Even as she looks back, the world is pictured here as looking upwards toward her, vowing never to forget her until the end of time. Doch, Koenigen, du stirbest nicht, Man weiss, was man an dir besessen; Die Nachwelt wird dich nicht vergessen, bis dieser Weltbau einst zerbricht. So, Queen, you do not die , One knows, what one possesses in you, posterity will not forget you, until this created world is one day destroyed.. The Trauer Ode pictures the princess, also referred to as the queen, as a beloved mother to her followers, and is creating an image in which this mother looks back upon the world, as she stands upon the threshold of everlasting life. I was reminded by this of what I have understood occurs when an object falls into a black hole in spacetime - an outside observer does not actually see the object disappearing, but rather witnesses an endless process of ever closer approximations to the event horizon. This approaching of the boundary line that goes on without end has to do with a slowing of time inside such an intense gravitational field. I think of Bach’s mother, and his father and other loved ones, as analogously approaching the gateway to Heaven but never quite passing in and disappearing, remaining forever in view in some essential way. I also picture them as perceiving his love for them; as the world of the living looks toward Heaven and promises to hold the dear departed in its consciousness always. This may correspond to the part of Bach remaining forever involved and engaged in loving his mother and father and others who died, so many of whom became lost to him on the plane of ordinary temporal existence, but not on that of the timelessness of Heaven.. By 1727, the year of the Trauer Ode, Bach had also lost his first wife, numerous children of his own, and all of his many siblings. His whole life was a Trauer Ode, an ode to mourning the deaths that followed him at every step. On the other hand, one could say that precisely the opposite is also the case, namely that Bach’s life was equally a Freude Ode, an Ode to Joy. What was his response to the loss of his first wife, Maria Barbara, who had passed away in 1721, after bearing him 7 children (4 dying in infancy)? After a period of mourning he found a second wife, Anna Magdalena, with whom he fathered 13 more children (only 7 of these survived infancy). Bach’s life was simultaneously one of never ending sorrow and ever renewed passionate creation.. So he was torn between the human and the divine, between the eternal and the temporal, and he found in music a way of expressing both of these currents of his nature. This duality is interestingly reflected in the only recorded statement Bach made regarding the essential purpose of music: “true music … [pursues] as its ultimate and final goal … the honor of God and the recreation of the soul.” (quoted in Wolff, 2000, p. 8) If it is true that Bach was a divided soul, with the essential rift being between eternity on the one side and the temporal world of earthly life on the other, then how perfect it is that Bach’s primary mode of musical expression was that of counterpoint, embodying the relationship between two (or more) voices that are independent in contour and rhythm, but interdependent in harmony. He did not invent this musical form, but he was its greatest genius. A great many of Bach’s creations – especially the fugues - are marked by the presence of two separate melodies, one following the other, played concurrently, interlacing, merging, separating, and alternating, materializing in sound the duality of his inner nature. 5. The Marriage of Heaven and Earth Let us now turn to another of Bach’s cantatas, No. 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme. As noted earlier, the story on which this cantata is based, drawn from one of the Gospels in the New Testament (Matthew), uses the metaphor of marriage to represent the union of the Souls of Humanity (the bride) with Jesus, Son of God (the groom). In the biblical story there is a great wedding to take place, but a number of people are sleeping as the moment of the actual marriage approaches. The call to the sleepers to awaken (Wachet auf!) stands for a call to humanity to prepare for the Second Coming of the Lord and of Eternal Salvation. In the selection I suggest listening to from this cantata (track 4 on most CD versions, its most well known section), there are two distinct parts that alternate and overlap - one of which – the initial instrumental part– calls to mind people and perhaps even animals in motion, dancing, walking, running, leaping, such imagery being bodily in nature, existing in space and in time, on the earth – the other part, which comes in after a short period, is a Lutheran chorale, celebrating the glory of God, giving voice to the coming union with Jesus Christ. This second part, embodying the divine side of the dichotomy, appears superimposed on the first part, representing earthly life – they alternate and then coincide, playing simultaneously, almost like a kiss at the final moment of the marriage, uniting Heaven and Earth, Jesus and the Soul of Humanity, blending and unifying the Eternal and the Temporal, the Finite and the Infinite. If you can listen to the selection, pay attention to the arrival of the chorale melody and hear it as the Coming of the Lord. And join me in picturing this unification as a symbol of a healing of the rift in the soul of Johann Sebastian Bach. Benjamin Stolorow helped me to hear the duality within the music, and the fusion of the two sides as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fourth Suggestion: Cantata 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme: https://youtube/watch?v=1lw_krZChaQ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most famous section of cantata 147, known as Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, presents a substantially parallel structure in sound, wherein a dancelike melody (embodying spatiotemporal existence) is, after a short period, joined by a vocal part addressing the glory of God (the timeless realm of Heaven). I suggest listening to this piece of music again, and picture the alternations and integrations as reflective of Bach’s inner duality and personal struggle to achieve synthesis and wholeness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fifth Suggestion: Cantata 147 – Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring: https://youtube/watch?v=FwWL8Y-qsJg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 14:36:00 +0000
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