A Detour

    While my passion for the pipe organ is the center of my attention for worldly pursuits, I find myself often distracted by the various opportunities that I have the privilege of taking up. I may be giving the impression of one slacking off, but I here argue otherwise. Notice that I have used the word 'distracted'. In this fast-paced world, every moment gone off your chosen path is often defined as time wasted. Is it? As this month draws to a close, I have been thinking quite a lot. Perhaps that is why I was hesitant to write in the blog even though the blank page and blinking cursor were as patient as ever as they waited for me to make a move.

    One 'distraction' is me signing up for the current concert season of the choir of the Madras Musical Association, purely because of the repertoire. Logically I know I should be focusing on pipe organ studies but when this opportunity presented itself, I jumped on it with a kind of hunger that surprised me. The choir is performing the entirety of the Mass as set to music by Johann Sebastion Bach (BWV 232). I have been absorbed in critically listening to various recordings of this work. (My favorite now is Masaaki Suzuki conducting the Bach Collegium Japan in their sublime 2007 SACD release) Then something just clicked while I was listening to the CUM SANCTO SPIRITU part of the GLORIA. Bach drew me to the organ because he knew deafening silences. When I started attending the rehearsals in January for this musical work and I sung that movement, immediately after I finished singing I wanted more than anything to just let that feeling sink in. To bask in that silence, to soak in whatever little acoustic decay was possible in the practice venue. I felt that silence there was warranted. It was indispensable. I am sure I must have jumped a little when the choir just started singing again. Puzzling. I know. I simply could not for the life of me figure out why I wanted silence after singing exactly that movement. I was lost till I heard this Masaaki Suzuki recording.

    This movement has exactly thirty seconds of silence at the end. I can think of no reason for them to leave that in except that the creators of this recording felt it should not be cut out while editing. These thirty seconds of silence was deafening. As I felt a smile materialize on my lips, I realized I was tearing up as well. This was it. In some way I felt the great Maestro had spoken to me across time and space. I could not be happier that this 'distraction' came into my life. It is with the greatest joy that I will be singing for the concert, and my mind will have the same three words that J. S. Bach would affix to the end of every single one of his compositions: 'SOLI DEO GLORIA'. Amen.