Ambiguity in Bach's music

Whenever I listen to music by J.S. Bach, I notice ambiguous emotion in each melody of his most works. It could be called as a kind of polysemy in music. Whatever brilliant and pleasant music it might be, a kind of sorrow or sadness is on the background at the same time. I have reiterated about this double emotion in his music before. That characteristics makes his music sound serious and profound.

Professor Isoyama whom I also mentioned about a lot of times in this blog, a famous scholar on Bach used to say it was due to a couple of circumstances he had lived. First, it was soon after the Thirty Years' War, destructive and miserable to people all over in Germany. In the era of Bach, he must be influenced by the aftershock of that war. Second, Bach has lost his family early in his life. By age of 9 years, he has lost his parents and has had to live with his elder brother. Losing his parents, he must have felt he had to live helpless life. Lastly, Christianity of protestant by Luther taught him eschatological way of life, I believe. This might be the base of dual emotion in his music as well.

The final chorus of Matthew's Passion sounds a typical example of ambiguity to me. For a music of funeral, it sounds brilliantly radiant. The basso continuo still sounds full of sadness. What a great Aufhebung between opposite two emotions! I am always amazed at it when reaching to this final chorus. An irreplaceable comfort to me!

It will be his 7th anniversary on the 22nd of this month. He was lying on death bed around this time after having severly injured on the snowed street back home after serving as a referee at a chorus competition. It will be the 28th anniversary for Tohru Takemitsu as well. He has loved Matthew's Passion so much and has spent the last night on the earth listening to it as his wife used to tell.