A Blind Spot
Apr. 18th, 2004 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI don't get Bach. Maybe it's because he's so mathematical. There was a woman playing the Chaconne last night and it was like being faced with a page of sums.
Mozart, Vivaldi- no problem. Early music- wonderful. The same programme also featured a concert of viols playing Byrd and Taverner and stuff. I was grooving along to them quite happily. It's just Bach. I just don't seem to be able to find a way in. And what makes it so infuriating is that everyone last night was saying how Bach is the greatest and the Chaconne is a pinnacle of western music. There's a line (Matthew Arnold maybe) about how we needs must love the highest when we see it. Well, sorry fella, but it just ain't true.
Mozart, Vivaldi- no problem. Early music- wonderful. The same programme also featured a concert of viols playing Byrd and Taverner and stuff. I was grooving along to them quite happily. It's just Bach. I just don't seem to be able to find a way in. And what makes it so infuriating is that everyone last night was saying how Bach is the greatest and the Chaconne is a pinnacle of western music. There's a line (Matthew Arnold maybe) about how we needs must love the highest when we see it. Well, sorry fella, but it just ain't true.
