Bach en temps de pandèmia

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I have been keeping a personal diary now for many years. To be specific, ever since 1995. Dozens of notebooks full of reflections on a range of matters which inspire me to want to express my thoughts on paper. I also use them to deal with more personal questions – writing about them becomes a kind of self-exorcism, a way to see and understand problems clearly so as not to fall into the trap that Ausiàs March, a key figure in the world of Catalan literature, warned us about: Whoever considers thinking to be their enemy, does not live life to the full.

(...) This book, however, is not a book about Bach’s cantatas nor a profound interpretation of the church music, Kirchen Musik, the genius from Eisenach composed at different times in his life. No. It is a personal diary about the body of cantatas Bach wrote, a book about my personal pilgrimage into this world of music over a year, listening to these pieces alongside reading their corresponding notes, carrying out a rhetorical and musical analysis, and, especially, enjoying a time for reflection and meditation on the sensations the music creates.

(...) A liturgical journey which began at Christmas 2020, on 25 December, and ended on the fourth Sunday of Advent 2021, 19 December. Regarding festivities for which we do not have specific works by Bach, I have chosen other compositions he wrote. For this reason, these texts do not only deal with cantatas but also with other musical pieces Bach composed such as the Saint Matthew Passion, motets, and his Lutheran masses among others.

Oriol Perez i Treviño (extract from the introduction)