Sermon for September 29th, 2024
Psalm 150:1-6
1Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness! 3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 2 Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. 5 I wait for the Lord; my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. 8 It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
Soli Deo Gloria: The Music & Message of Johann Sebastian Bach - Part II
What you just heard is far and away the most famous and recognizable organ piece in the world, played on El Paso’s largest pipe organ. I doubt there’s a single person in this room who hasn’t heard that piece before, in a movie, in a concert, or maybe even in a haunted house around Halloween time! There’s something in this piece that instantly stirs up strong emotions—whether it’s fear, sorrow, awe, or reverence. It’s famous because it connects with us on a deep level, and so I want to take a few moments to consider why that may be.
The piece is called Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, by Johann Sebastian Bach. The letter D refers to the key it’s written in, and “minor” refers to its mode—minor keys often sound sinister or sad, although if you listen to the entire piece it certainly transcends those stereotypes. Toccata is a type of musical composition—the name comes from an Italian word similar to the Spanish word “tocare” or in English “to touch.” A toccata usually includes fast, melodic runs on the keyboard. The opening notes in this piece are the toccata.
Fugue comes from a Greek and Latin word that means to flee or to be chased. A fugue begins with a melody that is then followed (or chased) by another melody, sometimes similar and sometimes contrasting. But I like to think of a fugue as a conversation—a musical question that is answered by other voices, then asked in a different way, and answered with other variations until all of the questions and answers swell into one giant, complex, melodious conversation.
I think that Toccata and Fugue in D Minor represents a conversation between God and humanity. It begins with a fall. This is the toccata at the beginning: A couple of notes wavering…. [trill] then falling [first run]. This pattern is repeated three times, each time in a lower octave [second run]. This is a reminder that sometimes when we encounter God, when God “touches” us, it can be painful, catastrophic, even [third run]. At the very bottom of this pit—almost the lowest note on the organ, a cry of despair and anguish swells up powerfully: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” But at the end of that painful wail, the discordant notes finally resolve into a comforting major chord: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.” [chord build and resolve]
After this, the running toccata notes reverse direction—moving up the scale, like piercing, demanding and questioning prayers ascending to heaven. They fall again, unanswered, and the discordant wail rises again. But after this, comes the fugue, the conversation. Where the toccata was free form, and full of raw emotion, the fugue is punctuated with pulsing rhythm, like time itself: “I wait for the Lord; my soul waits, and in his word I hope.”
There is back and forth between the melodies as the dialogue intensifies and other voices join in: “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.” And just like the conversation between God, Job and his friends in the Book of Job, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor never quite answers the question in the way we might want. There are moments of upbeat joy and quiet beauty woven into the conversation, but still the sorrow and angst remain constant as well. The piece ends with a giant, foreboding minor chord—not this time the wailing cry of the Psalmist, but rather the awesome, magnificent power of God, the creator of the universe.
- English Suite Prelude in a minor
- The WTK Fugue in B-Flat Major
