I was in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. This is the centre of Bach’s universe; it was his place of work when he was the peak of his powers. I was shuffling round with everybody else when the heavens opened. Pouring and pelting not rain but music.
From the gallery a small orchestra and a choir exploded into a Bach chorus and for maybe a minute the air turned gold. Then an abrupt halt: that’s not quite right, you do this, you don’t do that, you start a little sooner and we’ll try it again from the top. Let’s go.
And then again the music. This is still a place of work, a rehearsal in progress, musicians hard at it as they have been for the past 300 years. And it was as if I was hearing Bach for the first time as well as for the ten millionth.
On the way home we drove towards Norwich from Stansted: and the roads were frothing. While my back had been turned the hawthorns had exploded into blossom: quite different from the wild plum and the blackthorn that had gone before, for these trees flower before they leaf.
But the hawthorns were flowering against their new and vivid leaves and that added a new tone, a new depth, a new achievement to the advancing spring. I had never noticed this before, not properly. But now I look at plants as if they were something to do with me, something that requires my attention. These days I count myself a bad botanist.
As a result I saw hawthorns for the first time as well as for the ten millionth.
https://linktr.ee/howtobeabadbotanistindies
As per usual, Simon , you fill my imagination with wonderful sights and sounds, thank you very much and keep them coming , please,
Anthony
Thansk for kind words as always, Anthony —
Simon, you must have thought you had gone to Heaven when in Thomaskirche in Leipzig !
Music in the castle of heaven, no less!
Got my “signed” copy on Monday. Looking forward to reading it in the garden on sunny days – if I can wait that long.
Hello Angela —
I signed ’em personally, I promoise you! I hope you’re enjoying it
Bach and blossom – what joy!
Twin unbeatables!
The less said about my trips to the Hawthorns the better! Looking forward to the book though!
Never underestimate the Baggies!
Simon your observation , I look at plants as if they are something to do with me , struck a chord . I follow Spring so closely now. Each blossom tree and phase in our garden and the chalk valley we live in seems so significant, I do not want to leave home until summer has taken over and the dawn chorus starts to fade. From the white blossom of the old damson tree in late February, and the first blackthorn in early March, to the lime green of the beech trees and the final chorus of horse chestnuts. The last two Mays we have spent in Greece in the Mani peninsula . It has its own spring beauty of the swallows and house martins in abundance and orchids in the mountain gorges. But, it does not match the climax of the English spring. It is a huge multi movement symphony, which takes us back to Bach.
A well-struck chord on a well-temepred intrusment!