(WARNING: somewhat labored analogy ahead.)
Last summer we went on a rafting trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. I am not a hiker but somehow made it down the Bright Angel Trail, Bach B Minor score in my pack. As we journeyed through the Canyon I sang through vocal lines and analyzed the score while marveling at the awesome (in the true sense of the word) world around me. (Consequently, there are lots of water spots in my score!)
The opening bars of the Mass were visually depicted everyday in the towering cliffs around us as we traveled down the river – I cannot hear you sing those beginning four measures without seeing the Canyon walls. As we approached rapids, our guides explained how they were interpreting the patterns in the water and seeing where the holes are. You can go around a hole or sometimes just blast through it; just as, for instance, in the Cum Sancto Spiritu fugue we see the patterns – a wave from the altos at m169, clashing with the tenors’ eddying run. And at the episode beginning in the middle of m186, we have…a hole. The basses carry us right over the top of it to the calm waters of the new tonality – b minor.
Or we may get stuck in an eddy [perhaps in the Pleni sunt coeli, m153]. We’re tired and it’s hard work to paddle out. Ah but there’s the bass fanfare in 158 and then the subject in 162 – we’re back in the current, heading downstream, happy campers.
The men and women who were our guides for that week have a love and deep knowledge of the Canyon and of the river. They absolutely enjoy and adore the rapids, which give them a chance to perform highly technical feats while giving us a stupendous ride. And that’s what I want for you: intimate knowledge of our rapids, with the ability both to see where the holes are and to experience terrific joy as we blast through them to the always-amazing final cadence.
nvcsings 
Thank you Anne, for the analogy. Much appreciated. It makes the long passages a bit more interesting for the musically uninitiated, like myself. I have checked the score and do see your point.
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The great thing, Jin, is that you won’t be “musically uninitiated” for long – Bach teaches us everything.
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Hi Ann,
Sounds like you had a wonderful trip!! I love your river analogy for the BACH B Minor Mass because as a former white water kayker I very well understand your analogies.
I signed up to take white water Kayak lessons with the Appalachian Mountain Club when my last child left for college. It did not come naturally to me but no matter how may times I flipped and had to empty the water out of my boat I LOVED IT! I bought my own kayak, paddle and gear and learned to “read the water”, how to paddle big rapids, paddle down big drops and roll up my kayak up. It took a few years of Class II and Class III river trips to, finally, be good enough at it to go on the Class IV river trips.
And, I dreamed of someday paddling my kayak down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. There was a kayak trip being planned but for me it was never meant to be. In the spring as I rolled up on a very difficult “eddy line” and my rotators in my shoulder shredded. Once a kayaker does that they are prone to having it happen again so my wild water river days were over and no kayaking down the Grand Canyon.
However, I hope do home to someday to see the Grand Canyon in a raft. So, I can’t paddle it in a kayak but, if you don’t mind me using your idea, I think I’d really enjoy singing my way down the Colorado river!
Charline
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Hello Ann etal
I very well understand your analogy, Ann, and am glad you’ve shared it. Some years ago I hiked solo down and up the Grand Canyon, staying at the bottom for a day or two, very different from kayaking but absolutely wonderful. At the time I thought I’d seen so many pictures of the Canyon that the experience itself would be a let down; WOW was I wrong!
These days I hear parts of the Mass whenever I’m not talking or thinking about something specific, I love it.. and then I think what the words are that go with that part so I’ll know where I am in the Mass, so to speak. For me music sometimes, and nature always, is a “religious experience” meaning huge gratitude and happiness for what I’m experiencing. And these days, given our sadly governed nation, I depend on those experiences for joy and strength.
I join the many singers who deeply appreciate what you are doing for and with us. Thank you.
Vera
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