Pain & Bach

We are currently rehearsing and eventually performing (this weekend) Bach's Mass in b minor. By we, I mean the school's baroque academy, so we're playing with baroque bows. Like every other musician, I have always held Bach as a sort of god on Earth, but besides the Ciaconna for violin (the piece that made me want to play the instrument), I've not felt as moved by Bach's work as this Mass. It deals with existential questions of "Who are we?", "What is life?" and so on. For me, however, it also addresses a big part of life on Earth - pain. I'm reminded of a quotation I read: "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." If you listen to Bach's b minor Mass, you will hear, in the more anguished movements (particularly "Qui tollis peccata mundi" or "Who takes away the sins of the world"), something reaching out and continuing. From this dark and deep point of the Mass, the music and motifs come forth and are actually reborn. Rebirth and rejuvenation are not ideas only from the east - they're found everywhere in Bach's music. And you find these ideas most often in the desperate and forlorn works. I think this idea indescribably beautiful. And hopeful. You don't have to suffer with pain. You just have to learn from it and channel the energy towards creating something new.