Baroque Music and the Paradox of Tragic Beauty

J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto #1 in A Minor (BWV 1041) expresses perfectly one of the special properties of Baroque music generally and Baroque violin in minor key specifically. It captures a sense of beauty, with the high notes of the violin deeply moving the soul; at the same time these high notes have a sense of tragedy; of a piercing wound, not of the body, but of the soul. As the piece reaches the highest point, the other instruments become lighter allowing the violin to come to the forefront and emphasize the deeply personal nature of the tragic emotion. In a special way, Baroque music is able to capture the paradox of tragic beauty.[1]

 

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[1] Originally an assignment for Music 201, 30 August 2013.

"Original Instruments"

Last night I wanted to relax and read. I decided I wanted to listen to woodland bird sounds. I had my windows open, so the sound of peepers was very loud. I really didn’t want to hear them anymore, so I put on some bird sounds.



Spring Peeper

Then I realized something, something that I have been thinking about in relation to music recordings vs. live music: these frogs, crickets, and owls were singing to me; God has inscribed in their natures specific parts to play in the symphony of nature; the entire production was for my benefit as human person, the pinnacle of physical creation.

I would not listen to an mp3 of a classical piece if I were at a classical concert. Why would I listen to a pre-recorded nature when I had a front-row seat to the most splendid concert in the universe, with God my Creator conducting?

The symphony of nature is the composition of the Creator; maybe next time I want to “relax” to artificial reproductions of nature, I should listen to the magnificence of live performance on the ‘original instruments’, the actual creatures for which the natural symphony was composed.