At an early age I was drawn to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. I didn't mind practicing quite as much while playing his minuets and preludes.  As the years progressed I found his book of Inventions fascinating.  In college when cramming for tests late into the night, my go-to study music was usually Bach. I had to keep the volume down, however, otherwise I’d find myself focusing on the music instead of the task at hand.   

JS Bach was a man of God.  He spent his entire life working primarily as a church musician.  In all his 65 years, he was best known as a gifted organist rather than a prolific composer.  He created so many masterpieces, yet only ten of his compositions were ever published in his lifetime.  

His music possessed an incredible spiritual vitality.  As he would sit down to compose, he would often scribble J.J. at the beginning of a composition — Jesu Juva; Latin for “Help me, Jesus.”   And when finishing a manuscript, he routinely initialed S.D.G. — Soli Deo Gloria; “To God alone, the glory.”  

The musical gifts he offered the world are monumental.  Leonard Bernstein said, “Once you do get to know Bach’s music well enough to love it, you’ll find you love him more than any other composer.”  I want to visit Germany one day — to sit in the chapels where he played, both large and small, and imagine him at the organ.

I have always found it uplifting to steal away to a quiet room in my house and blast Bach’s St. Matthew Passion or Toccata & Fugue in D minor on the speakers until my soul vibrates.  Even now when I sit down to practice, I like to warm up with his Inventions, numbers 13 and 8.  They get my brain and sluggish fingers moving like nothing else can.  You will no doubt hear Bach’s influence reflected in my piano arrangement of ‘How Firm a Foundation.’    

Fun fact: My initials are TACH which happens to rhyme with Bach. So … yeah.

No wonder I love him so.