One of many possible endings
Monday, November 14, 2011 at 12:03AM Today's post functions as a tag to the "The Losing Card, I'll Someday Lay" post. Below is a link to a video of a person on YouTube performing the first prelude from the Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1 by J.S. Bach.
My experience in music has led me to discover pieces of music that illustrate the final crossing from life into whatever is next. This prelude came to mind today. I decided to place the link before the text, so you would hopefully take a listen before you read my thoughts on the piece. I am convinced there is a transition out of life where the etheral part of you (i.e. your soul/spirit/etc.) moves away from your brain and transforms itself for whatever comes next. I think that during this transition, there may be some "conscious thought" left within the soul. Albeit, such thought will never be experienced as we know conscious thought, rather it'll be whatever is recorded by your soul to be its final memories of the time spent on the plane of existence where we all reside.
This prelude describes how that transition feels. In mortal terms, it would be described as floating. However, the actual motion wouldn't be random as floating indicates--nor do I see it as direct as flying. I suppose I see it more as a detachment. As the body is either worn to its last or is compromised so that it is incompatible with life, the soul simply detaches itself from wherever/however it is one with the body. That process of release is what Bach captured with his notes in this prelude. As the piece progresses diatonically and chromatically, I hear that as the encoding of the aforementioned conscious thoughts into whatever memory capacity that our soul has--if its is memory as I know it at all. I also hear this middle section (development--or fantasia as Wynton Marsalis calls it), as the remaining consciousness of our soul looking down at its former host as its transformation happens. I know I am anthropomorphizing the concept of a soul, but my descriptions are limited by my strictly human experience.
The final statement of V7 (where the pedal tone C has a major 7th above it in the tenor voice) and subsequent resolution to tonic (with the final 4-3-2-3 in the melody) is the completion of both the transformation and transition. The V7 is one final look at the end of the mortal experience and the I begins whatever comes next.
Bach, Death, spirituality in Life, Philosophy
Reader Comments (3)
If you were able to choose the destination, not necessarily of a religious belief or idea...where would you in your ethereal state go, do, or become in the next life or existence?
I would really like an answer to this! I'm curious to know.
That is an impossible question. I really don't know if what's after life is a destination or a state of being. Also, this question suggests a human answer for something that is inhuman (the behavior or a soul). If I do anthropomorphize the scenario, I
'd be curious to find a past existence similar to my current and try to affect a different outcome to see how the future changes. I can't say that I desire such an experience with certainty, since I don't know enough about what's next to make educated guesses on potential actions.
That's the point. The question was basically, what would you do if given a choice? If your hereafter were up to you - what would you do with it?
So - you'd alter your "fate" (change the past to make a better future or present) ...interesting. What would you change?