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| Final Rehearsal for Bach's St John Passion, Abingdon, 30th March 2024 |
On this
Easter Sunday, the ‘time changed’ in the U.K./Europe to Summertime and it was
also the birthday of JS Bach - in our new system that is (he would have called
it 21st March since they followed the Julian system them, codified by
J.C. himself (Caesar, of course). I wrote in my post A Man Looks Forwards and Backwards that I was going to be
singing as ‘Faithless Peter’ (I suspect I was chosen for my Darwinian views) in
a 300th anniversary performance of the St John Passion in Abingdon
to raise money for the triennial Passion Play – in which I have performed in
the past (as a less sympathetic character).
I wrote in
the last piece on Bach’s mastery of using all his skill to tell the story, and
begins with a mighty chorus that takes us down the ‘Tunnel of Time’. He
intended this to be to the time of Christ (and the Caesars) but it also takes
us to the certainty of 1724, truly a time shift. While the faith of Bach and
the gospel writings might give problems to some, that would be in a modern
context and Bach’s amazing storytelling is a thing of beauty, for myself as a
scientific thinker as well as a Jewish member of the choir.
This is a short post to put up a picture. I’ve written enough about how Bach’s music has inspired my Darwin writing and next (musical) post I’ll put up a piece directly using Baroque, the musical language of Faith, to tell a story of scientific faith. Bit for the meantime, Happy Easter (as the thief said to the librarian!)
Photo
credit: D Gahan, Abingdon 30th March 2024
