Wow, if that doesn’t say it all about the man, then what does?
A Cantata praising coffee, a few -Goldberg- variations for the road ahead, a set of pieces for a “well tempered system” (putting every key through a rigorous test), and on and on…….
A man completely devoid of this notion that composition is some sort of divine act/message ordained by the gods, and that only the few chosen ones can decode that message for us mere mortals to understand.
“No, it’s not magic,” said Bach, “it’s effing hard work” (hence all that coffee to go along with long hours of analysis, practice, composition, etc).
He also said that anyone could do what he did, and although that might be a bit of a stretch if taken literally, I understand what he meant.
He didn’t get ‘the message’ from the gods, he simply devoured (transcribed) everything that came by him, learned from the experience(s), and then (via very earthly means) applied these to his own; hence, the Bach we know today.
