The glory of Bach. Can there be anything more uplifting and beautiful than this - the Credo from Bach's B Minor Mass, one of the defining (if not the defining) work of all vocal music.
In our contemporary race to the bottom society and in a world obsessed with hate and war we need solace and space to reflect on where we are going as a race - it is difficult anymore to describe ours as a civilization. The most powerful man in the world, leader of the richest nation in the world and aided by Netanyahu's Israel seek to reduce us all to unfeeling thugs in their own brutal image. Trump is an evil mad man - there have always been such people - and it is our responsibility and especially America's to get rid of him: if they do not then they are giving their consent to his evil and thus complicit in it. But Israel is more worrying. Israel is a nation whose Jewish population should, more than any other, recognize the evil abomination of what they are doing for they have with the holocaust and throughout history suffered great loss and injustice. But, it seems that rather than learn the lessons of hatred and crude violence against their neighbours they prefer to take on its mantle, and reproduce the sins of those, like Hitler, who sinned against them; they should not be easily forgiven for they show no forgiveness. In such times as these we need rescuing from the grotesque ugliness of Trump, Netanyahu and their evil followers and what they are seeking to impose upon mankind. We need to think of and experience great beauty and inspiration more and more if we are to survive as true human beings with the feelings and emotions that recognize beauty, truth, dignity, justice so that goodness might prevail over the evil that now stalks the world.
Bach's B Minor Mass is often the last thing I hear before falling asleep at night; listening to it and especially this glorious Credo is fundamental to my life and my being. I make no apology for saying that anyone who cannot listen to this without getting shivers down the spine or shed a tear is in my view emotionally and spiritually damaged for, like so much of Bach, it speaks to our humanity and reaches into our very soul - and surely we need that in these times.
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