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Johann Sebastian Bach is a glorious musical saint. His devotion to the Christ, his virtuoso talent at the keyboard, his understanding of counterpoint and canon made him a beloved composer in a world where composition meant little, and performance was everything.

First of all, Bach was a Christian. Much of his work was overtly religious in nature, and his devotion to his Lutheranism was a foundation for his efforts.

But, more than a composer, Bach was a performer. Because of this, he wanted to show what he could do. He wrote the most elaborate and challenging works he could in order to stretch his limits as an organist. His Toccata and Fugue in D minor shows this perfectly. It begins with a fairly basic, fairly short theme. But he elaborates on it, he passes it along different register in a canon, he turns it to fugue. And all the while his fingers are flying over the keyboard. Limited to the harpsichord and the organ, he did not have the ability to play with the subtleties of volume that would be gained with the piano, but he showed the theoretic limits of his art.

Bach was constrained by the Baroque, in which ornamentation and complexity were the standards of musicality. But, whereas Gabriela or Gesualdo, and even Buxtehude were mired in the style, Bach showed that the style could evolve into a bright clarity, a sparkling mathematics.

Here is another of Bach's hallmarks. He is the mathematician of musicians. His counterpoint is as perfect as a Mendelbrot set. His fugue is a mirror of Escher and Goedel. I wish I had the ability to express this perfection of form better, but let me put it this way. Vivaldi and Handel were proficient and gifted at composition, but there efforts are pale in comparison to Bach, who was able to create music which glorified God, and yet showed the genius of man.

Learn more about this author, John Devera.
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