And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Saturday, July 27, 2024
The Bach Effect: What the GREATS Hear That You Don’t
There are quite a few artisans in the music world, but Bach is the artist that towers above other musical artists. You can listen to the same recording of Bach, a solo instrument or an entire choral symphony, and come away with an entirely different listening experience every time.
When asked what information we should send upon First Contact with an alien race, the physicist Freeman Dyson said "The collected works of Bach, ...but that would be bragging".
Per https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/03/12/bach-space/ the original version of this thought is by Lewis Thomas: Perhaps the safest thing to do at the outset, if technology permits, is to send music. This language may be the best we have for explaining what we are like to others in space, with least ambiguity. I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging, of course, but it is surely excusable for us to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later.
There are quite a few artisans in the music world, but Bach is the artist that towers above other musical artists. You can listen to the same recording of Bach, a solo instrument or an entire choral symphony, and come away with an entirely different listening experience every time.
ReplyDeleteBach’s influence on Western music is so pervasive that it’s almost impossible to describe.
ReplyDeleteHe put the initials “SDG” on every manuscript. They stand for Soli Deo Gloria. Glory to God Alone.
ReplyDeleteThanks, at the end of this video I was asking myself; why don't I listen to more classical music. Especially since I have the time.
ReplyDeleteWhen asked what information we should send upon First Contact with an alien race, the physicist Freeman Dyson said "The collected works of Bach, ...but that would be bragging".
ReplyDeletePer https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/03/12/bach-space/ the original version of this thought is by Lewis Thomas:
DeletePerhaps the safest thing to do at the outset, if technology permits, is to send music. This language may be the best we have for explaining what we are like to others in space, with least ambiguity. I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging, of course, but it is surely excusable for us to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later.
Bach is God. Sitting down with the Well-Tempered Clavier rescued me from Covid Boredom, beginning in 2020.
ReplyDeleteAhhhhhhh, Bach!
ReplyDelete