Very Briefly, Upon Hearing Bach's, "Kyrie," From The B-Minor Mass For The First Time.

"What am I hearing?" I thought.    No joke.   "What the hell am I hearing?"  

Now, I know that sounds angry.   It was not.   It was astonishment.   And, as much as I would love to share that astonishment with you, words will fail.   But I will try to describe the extraordinary transformation that took place.   A transformation not only within me but OF me.   I was transformed and have not been the same since.   Such was the power, beauty, and sublimity of the music.    And those words do not suffice.  

Now bear in mind, I have been listening to and studying serious classical music for decades.   The exhilaration of the sublime is not new to me, upon hearing a masterpiece for the first time.  I have known it as caused by all the great composers, from Josquin to Stravinsky.   I have been brought to my knees, to tears, to shouting, to jumping up and down, because what I had heard was so indescribably exciting and magnificent that I could not contain myself.    It has happened many times.    And many times, it has changed me.

But not like this.

I'll never forget the first time I truly felt a "connection," -- that is to say, I felt I "understood, Stravinksy's brilliant ballet, "Les Noces."    Overwhelming, truly.  I can truly say it was like the sun for the first time.   A combination of awe and weeping.   Not unusual.  Mahler, Strauss, Verdi, Mozart, all, at one time or another, presented themselves to me and elicited that reaction.    My God, the hours I've spent weeping, marveling, meditating on Chopin's music is absurd.   A lifetime.   And it never fails to surprise.  

But not like this.

For Bach's "Kyrie," is not a work of musical arts.   Well, it is, but it is so much more that to label it as such, so severely limits the inherent meaning of the work as to make it trivial.  Yes, trivial.    To say that this piece is a great masterpiece of music is to trivialize it!    Amazing.

So, you ask, what the hell is it?

Well, to try to answer this, I would have to begin by saying that it is not any ONE thing.  Or two things.   It's a bunch of things.   A whole big bunch.    A whole big fat bunch.   I hope I'm not losing you with my detailed technical description.    Bach has created something that upon which can be placed no label.   Many labels, perhaps, but they do not capture the whole.

If such a thing is possible, it is a musical manifestation of the truly sublime.   It is sacred, but not religious.  

Speaking from a strictly "musical" standpoint, if such a thing is possible,  there is meaning here that defies categorization unlike other music.   It begins with a statement by the huge five part chorus (there are two soprano lines)  that simply presents a theme in the highest voice, a la a chorale, but full voiced, non-rhythmic, really, more like a fanfare, or warning, or at least of the most serious profundity that one cannot but help but thinking, we have entered another world here.   We are being told to "fasten our seat-belts," for a journey, an exposition, a exploration of worlds unknown, of places unseen, places of the deepest possible significance.  

This if followed by . . . what?    A kind of orchestral concertato-fugal exposition of themes that is neither a concerto nor a fugue.   It is something "other."   The chorus enters with the words of the, "Kyrie," in replication of the orchestral exposition but only as a starting point as we the development takes us far  from where we've been, we do not know what to expect and cannot be sure where we are.   It seems endless, but we do not care as the main theme is somehow, always present, as a compass for anchor of our hearts and minds.  Such extraordinary metamorphosis demands details analysis, but this is not the place for that.   However, such analysis will reveal that no matter how strange the scenery, how distant the shore, everything we hear comes from that original theme.   It gives the work an amazing homogeneity, a "oneness," that bespeaks a single force greater than ourselves.

In  its inability to be labeled, placed within a preexisting formula or structure and given the complexity of its material, the experience is transcendental.    We are led inevitably to an encounter with the Godhead, to the fount of the Divine, the eternal.    


And we are blessed.  


Blessed by the music, by Bach, by the Muse, by Artinto, by God himself, as if He wrote the piece; and blessed by that awareness being given this glimpse of the awesome glory Grand and Universal Truth.