The Music Historian
“Johann Sebastian Bach: the Story of the Development of a Great Personality (1909), [was] rated by The Times as his most important book” ~ Wikipedia
Nobility and grandeur at the height
Of music, that is what the boy was taught
By Wesley. Hubert learned the stately might
Of Bach from Wesley, what that great one wrought
In mathematical perfection set
In gravest notes, a beauty cool in shape
And warm in tone, a numinous duet.
Perhaps it was like parting of the drape
There in the Holy of the Holies, in
Between it and the holy prelude. This
Wide-winged epiphany would underpin
The later man as geometric bliss.
..From early on he knew the very best.
….The grail did not require a life-long quest.
When death devours a young one’s sister, grief
Lasts long. Laments continue on for years.
“In my distress,” an anthem brought relief,
Perhaps. The Eton boy used notes for tears
And even later in the pages of
His diary he dragged up words of pain
Ongoing, four years past. The closest love
He knew in childhood was in Lucy’s reign
Of sisterhood. His brother often gone
Away at school, his father’s trips prolonged,
The step-mother devoted to her spawn,
The motherless young boy felt wronged and wronged.
..An anthem and a diary entry are
….The hints we have of Lucy’s tacet scar.