"The Great Passion," James Runcie

You may have noticed my dereliction in writing and sending out TOTDs. It is not because of a lack of interest. It is because of editing a manuscript to be published in October, Essays from Essex: Nature - its Miracles and Mysteries. As well, One Man’s Family: Growing Up in Peterborough is expected to be re-printed, and a check of typos, etc. was deemed wise.

 

Your forbearance is appreciated. Have a good weekend, Sydney

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Burrowing into Books

The Great Passion, James Runcie

July 9, 2022

 

“I think that all passions are a form of belief.”

                                                                                                                                Johann Sebastian Bach speaking

                                                                                                                                James Runcie (1959-)

                                                                                                                                The Great Passion, 2022

 

This novel by British writer and film maker James Runcie tells two tales: It is a bildungsroman or a coming-of-age story. It is also a fictionalized sketch of one year in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer. Music is the common theme. We first meet Stefan Silbermann in 1750 in his shop in Freiberg where he builds organs. Bach has just died, and Stefan thinks back twenty-four years.

 

He is fourteen, with an exceptional, unchanged alto voice, in April 1726. His mother has recently died; his father, an organ maker, sends him for a year’s study at St. Thomas School where Bach is Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. He and his father meet with Bach: “All we ask, Monsieur Silberman, is that your son is studious, neat, clean and obedient. Do you think he can manage that?” His father assures him he can. “Obedience is the only way to virtue, and virtue the only path to happiness,” says Bach

 

Jordan Peterson once said: “Great art dances on the edge between order and chaos in a virtuosic manner that lifts audiences…with a joy that transforms...” That defines Johann Sebastian Bach and his music. “You need to play with your whole body,” Bach tells Stefan regarding the harpsichord. “The instrument may be your friend, but it is also your servant. You must learn to command it. Be confident.”

 

As a new and talented youngster, Stefan, early on, is bullied by other boys. Once, his bed was upended with him asleep. But he also experiences young love with the Cantor’s daughter Catherine, two or three years his senior. He “dreamed of Catherine and of the summer, a country lane; and, as I thought of her, I tried to put away all the shameful desires the school was continually telling us to avoid.”  There are times when he feels estranged from his childhood, as “no longer a boy and not yet a man.”

 

In preparing for a presentation of one of Picander’s cantatas, for which he had composed the music, Bach speaks to Stefan: “In your aria, Monsieur Silbermann, you need to imagine the oboes are indeed the angels…If angels travel with our bodies in life and our souls in death, then the music must do that as well.” 

 

The “Great Passion” in the title is, of course, the Passion According to St. Matthew, written in 1727 by Bach for Easter service at St. Thomas. It comes near the end of Silbermann’s year of study and is the final chapter of this short (260 pages) book. Tensions are high during rehearsals. The work is hard, Bach is a task master, and everyone has doubts. Anna Magdalena, Bach’s wife, helps Stefan: “’My Saviour will die out of love. This is the meaning of the Passion, and you are the person to tell us, Monsieur Silbermann.” He did. Today, Bach’s oratorio is considered one of the masterpieces of the Baroque period’s sacred music.

 

This book, a gift from a friend, was a wonderful surprise. The story is an insightful glimpse into the mind and actions of one of the world’s great composers, as seen through the eyes of a talented boy, who is experiencing the never-changing joys and pains of growing up.