I have to confess that in my early days a a budding classical music enthusiast (my teens and even early twenties), for some reason I tended to perceive Bach's music as being somewhat somber and even dry (perhaps that had something to do with the first recordings I had of his music). However, as I became familar as a listener with an increasing number of his works, from famous orchestral works like the Brandenburg Concertos and the Orchestral Suites to his chamber and keyboard works (a favorite is the Goldberg Variations) to his organ works and even some choral pieces, I became increasing enamored with Bach's music. As a neophyte pianist (I started out as a clarient player and did not take up the piano until my teens), my appreciation for Bach's music increased further. As I began to learn to play some of the pieces from Bach's Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook (so familiar to many beginning pianists), I became even more impressed with Bach's craftsmanship, even in his relatively minor compositions (assuming that all of the works in the Notebook are his own compositions, which I understand is not certain). Take, for example, the Prelude in C Major (which comes originally from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier). On the surface, the work merely consists of a progression of modulations presented via a repeated arpeggiated figure. Nevertheless, such is Bach's skill that in this brief piece he is able to build to a rather dramatic climax near its end.
It seems to me quite appropriate to express some thoughts about Bach's music during Holy Week. One reason might be that Bach was one of the greatest Christian composers (and, undoubtedly, one of the greatest of all composers). However, the reason why I particularly connect Bach with Holy Week is his great choral work the St. Matthew Passion, which recounts the events leading up to (and immediately after) the Crucifixion. I was not familiar with this work until a few years ago, when I bought a CD of highlights from this masterpiece. Although I have yet to hear the entire work, I have come to consider this as one of my favorite pieces of music. The opening chorus Kommt, ihr Tochter, helft mir Klagen (“Come you daughters help me mourn”), with its dramatic juxtaposition of the main chorus calling on the daughters of Zion to mourn the events of the Passion Week with a boys chorus singing O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig (“O Lamb of God, guiltless”) is quite stunning. However, to me the most moving part of the work is the bass aria Mache dich, mein Herze rein (“Make thee clean, my heart, I will bury Jesus”). I am not a student of German, so my understanding of the actual text of this piece is pretty much limited to the English translation of the title. Nevertheless, the music itself is so beautiful and yet so heart-wrenching that I hardly ever listen to it without tears running down my face. There is something about this aria that for me so perfectly expresses the great sadness of Christ’s death, a death that was due to my sin and that of the world.
Thus, I can say the music of Bach has for me provided a powerful emotional backdrop to my contemplations about the events of Holy Week. I hope that your Holy Week is deeply meaningful as you ponder those events as well.