Prelude in E Bach-maninoff [PIANO]
(J.S. Bach, arr. by S. Rachmaninoff)
Fugue in C D. Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Two weeks ago we discussed Luther (1483-1546), who initiated the Reformation which split Protestants from the Catholic Church. Then last week we considered Erasmus (1466-1536), a renowned Renaissance scholar, who agreed with Luther’s agenda and wanted to see his reforms enacted, but wanted to keep the Church united.
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens… a time to rend and a time to sew…” (Ecclesiastes 3) Split apart, come together, a season for both.
A male and female — two separate beings — come together, join and a new fertilized egg results — a brand new unity. And what’s the first thing it does? Divide! And keeps on dividing — in an adult human there are approximately 37 trillion cells. (We are both a ‘community’ and an ‘individual’.)
It’s a little like that story of the chess board — one grain of wheat on the first square, double that (2) for the next square, double that (now 4) for the next square and keep going. To get to 37 trillion you’re looking at about 45 squares. I seems strange to me that, roughly speaking, you go from one cell to a complete human in about 45 generations of cell divisions. (Each of those 37 trillion cells has its own life, ranging in duration from a couple weeks for skin cells to neurons that live as long as we do.)
And ultimately that grown person may — with the help of another 37 trillion-celled person — start the whole union-then-division process all over again.
The eternal dance of the opposites — unite & divide, unite & divide. The endless turning of the wheel — up it goes, then down, then up again. “The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.” (Ecclesiastes 1)
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Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was one of the great concert pianists of the 20th century. He was also a composer, writing in his own flavor of ‘Russian Romanticism’ (like Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakoff). The Rachmaninoffs were minor nobility in Russia before the Bolshevik revolution — Rachmaninoff’s father had had to sell all their estates due to financial mismanagement, so they were ‘nobility’ without any land, surviving in part on the generosity of relatives. But even bottom of the barrel nobility got shot by the Bolsheviks, so Sergei, his wife and children escaped to the Scandinavian West (partly by open sleigh in December) with little more than a suitcase apiece. Fortunately, Sergei had already established himself as an international concert pianist and conductor, so concerts so he could support his family rapidly ensued. He eventually emigrated to the United States and became a U.S. citizen a few weeks before he died in Los Angeles of advanced melanoma at age 69.
One of his compositions is an arrangement for piano solo of Bach’s Prelude in E for solo violin. I’ve found Bach viewed through the lens of heavy Russian Romanticism a fun perspective!