by Holroyd Hammond

Created on: August 15, 2011

Bach, the Guitar and the Meaning of Life

"There's really nothing to it. All you have to do is touch the right keys at the right time, and the instrument will play itself." JS Bach

That statement above by Mr. Bach may have been uttered "tongue in cheek," but there is a lot of truth in it: not just for music, but for life.

I got the idea for this paper as I was working on a piece by Bach; an arrangement for guitar of the 4th Cello Suite. At one point the music took over and I really heard and felt it - it was transcendental. I thought that surely God must be pleased with something like that and it seemed as if the music itself was a revelation of Truth. I haven't yet been able to get that feeling back; my clumsy technique keeps getting in the way. But, I know it's there, in the music. I'm still searching.

If you have never played Bach or studied the classical guitar or even if you have, you may reasonably ask, "What do Bach and the guitar have in common with the meaning of life?" In order for me to show any connection at all and to convince you of the rationality of it, I am sure that you would first require and expect that I should have discovered the meaning of life, and that I should be able to present a convincing argument in the support thereof, which argument, dear reader, if I did propose it, you would probably discount from the outset. But, allow me, nonetheless, to continue and you be the judge.

Many would describe "The Meaning of Life" as a search for Truth and the act of, having once found it, living within its prescribed limits. If you will allow me this, then we can continue. In any case, this search for Truth has, unquestionably, been the focus of the study of philosophers, thinkers and theologians throughout the ages. Plato argued that Truth could be understood, or defined, through Forms: Forms representing all objects and human concepts. In other words a table, for example, is a Form that embodies "tableness" or a quality that exists somewhere "out there" that is common to all tables. He was on the right track in a way, for he further described his Forms as unchangeable, eternal, intelligible and divine.

Other philosophers have struggled to intellectualize Truth in similar and other ways. Most (but not all) of them would agree that there is an ultimate Truth and a path to discovering it. That must be a given, else why would some men spend their whole lives in the pursuit? The problem with philosophy, and religion for that matter, is that both

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