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Bach, what my sister said about him...

5K views 34 replies 13 participants last post by  PetrB 
#1 ·
Late tonight, listening again to the amazing Wanda Landowska, on harpsichord, playing the immortal Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 903), I was reminded what my sister said about the Great Master:

Imagine, in a bit of whimsy, that scientists had invented a microphone so small that it would fit into an atom. So they find a suitable atom, and lower the microphone down into the atom (using a specialized rod and reel of course). Then they switch the microphone on.

What they'd hear would be a Bach fugue.
 
#2 · (Edited)
That's an insult to the beauty of a Bach fugue.

No seriously, the inside of an atom is pretty empty - there are wee tiny electrons, and a nucleus which is like a fly in a football stadium. Pretty boring in there if you ask me.

But you know, that reminds me of something I once read that struck me as beautiful.

The entire universe is one gigantic symphony. Here on Earth, we find a small, insignificant movement, a fugue. Many voices have entered, and many voices have stopped singing their songs. When all the voices join, in all registers, in unison and in stretto, those are the times when the fugue reaches matchless sublimity. And one day, those voices can make the fugue become something more than anyone dreamed it could be.

There's also the more famous analogy Carl Sagan used to describe the Earth and its people: one voice in a cosmic fugue. That I also like. I think Bach's fugues describe the beauty of the universe pretty well.
 
#7 ·
No seriously, the inside of an atom is pretty empty - there are wee tiny electrons, and a nucleus which is like a fly in a football stadium. Pretty boring in there if you ask me.
Hey Feathers, nuclei and electrons really aren't all that interesting and complex :p
This is like saying the universe isn't that interesting or complex, because like the atom it is mostly empty space. "As above, so below'.

Some people feel this 'empty space' is the essence of being itself.

"Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub;
It is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges;

We make a vessel from a lump of clay;
It is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful;

We make doors and windows for a room;
But it is the empty spaces that make the room livable;

Thus, while the tangible has advantages;
It is the intangible that makes it useful."


― Tao Te Ching

So do you feel galaxies and solar systems are not very interesting or complex either? After all, they are mostly just 'empty space'.
 
#9 ·
Fun comments, thanks. She expanded her metaphor by saying that the universe consists of frequencies, vibrations, rhythms. She was predating string theory but was pretty accurate, actually.

She also said that some people's minds are attuned to this universal rhythm, this frequency, and for them the connection is like sticking your finger in a light socket. Instant revelation, immediate connection.
 
#13 ·
I don't understand the OP's sister's way of thinking nor that of most of the responses - in a perfect world I prefer to be enlightened rather than puzzled but perhaps my old brain just isn't good enough to figure out what's going on. I'm sure JSB would be laughing his old nuts off, though. :)
 
#19 ·
A fact, like an atom is mostly empty space, is not science. Science is a method of understanding the world, and a way of thinking. So you're not disagreeing with me on anything that pertains to science itself, just how interesting or uninteresting atoms are.

And I most certainly did not say anything of the latter vein.
 
#24 ·
I was half-joking about the atom, but then this guy comes in and we end up having a conversation about physics. I was quite aware that it was an analogy and not trying to be anything more, but forgive me - I don't like to ignore discussions about physics!
 
#26 · (Edited)




Collect them all, open in separate tabs, play all at once....

So much for any of the conceits about the music of earlier eras sounding anything like "The Music of the Spheres" or the workings of the Universe as directed by a deity.

Sweet conceits they are, triggered by a near universal reaction to Bach sounding so highly ordered. What we now know of physics, quarks, chaos, etc. has nothing to do with the Newtonian concept of the Universe, all neat, lovely and orderly. Stars explode, matter happens and collides at random, etc.

This is parsecs away from the idea of a neatly ticking 18th century timepiece, like a crossword puzzle, where everything fits neatly in place, exactly, I theorize, why some just love the ole Thuringian's works: the works give a feeling of a very neat and tidy order where everything does fall neatly into place.

Before you get to issues of space, the cosmos, etc. there is so much in life which does not ever fall neatly into place, it is no wonder many will gravitate to Bach for that sense of order even if it is all but an illusion and a false conceit.
 
#33 ·
Sure, biochemically, you've gone (temporarily) insane, so "stoned" it is -- you're on a natural high for several years, until you "come down" as an adult. BTW; being drunk counts as "stoned."
 
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