Gratuitous Musickal Posting

A nice quote over at Terry Teachout's this morning:

"Bach no more composed for us than he lived for us. His music comes from far away; it speaks a language that we understand yet in which we hear echoes of another language, outside our expressive range."

Martin Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work (trans. John Hargraves)

I don't know if this is what Geck had in mind, but to me that other language of which I hear echoes in Bach's music is that of Heaven. The Musick of the Spheres or the choirings of the cherubim and the seraphim (which I take to be the same thing).

I was thinking about this while reading C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce t'other day. In one section, Heaven is explained to a recently arrived painter. The painter is reluctant to enter because he's worried about whether he will be able to continue his painting. The angel with whom he is speaking says yes, but that it will no longer be necessary - the painter's gift while living was to be able to see echoes of God's art in the world around him and convey those echoes to others by way of his work. In Heaven, though, everybody would be able to see God's art, the Real Thing as it were, for themselves. While the painter's gift for noticing things would still be valuable for teaching those around him, he would no longer be the gatekeeper, so to speak. After a bit, it becomes clear that the painter is more concerned with his own status than he is with any appreciation of God's art. He declines the offer of Heaven and scurries off to hell.

That passage prompted me to imagine, even eagerly anticipate, what it must be like to hear the music of Heaven in its pure form, unfiltered by earthly limitations or transmission through somebody else's hand and ear.

Of course, I'll have (I hope) the whole of eternity to eventually enjoy it, so I'm in no particular hurry. In the meantime, I am quite content to listen to the music of J.S. Bach as the nearest earthly echo available.