Robert Peters asked:

>What is the mysterious X which makes Bach's music so touching that even
>an agnostic guy like me feels like a Christian when listening to the St
>Matthew-Passion?

I think, for me, the beauty of Bach's sacred music is not to much the
message in it -- after 2000 years of it, it is familiar and no longer
startling, as it would have been at first (in the time of Jesus).
After all, Jesus was one of the earliest anti-heros.

What grabs me is Bach's response to it.  it must have been a
STRuggle to accept some aspects of the dogma, the Pauline theology,
So beautiful, so poetic, but in my view, so flawed.  But there is a
wide-eyed earnestness with which he accepts it all, the joy and the
pain.  There is a wholeheartedness in Bach's response to the christian
"word" that does not come easily to modern men and women.

Then, of course, as Steve says, there is Bach's talent, which brings the
full power of Baroque harmony and counterpoint to bear on the musical
problem that Bach set out to solve.

P.S: One of my favorites in the SMP is O Mensch, bewein dein Sundre
gross, and I have given up analyzing why it moves me so much!

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