When I was a student, I found better things to do during the day than go to classes and learn stuff. The Friday free organ recitals in the big old hall gave me a love of Bach. Over the years I came to enjoy his orchestral, chamber and solo music.
But I used to wonder why he wasted so much of his time writing vocal and choral music, which I detested. Why had he been such a Holy Willie?
Of course I was an idiot. I see now that Bach's Cantatas, Masses and Passions are in a sense the ultimate. Like nothing else they reach the cortical god-spot, the part that programs us to feel the god thing.
Of course it's all just mathematics and waves, but so is everything else.
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