Usually, every year at the Spring Equinox, I write a blog post about J. S. Bach.

At the time of Bach's youth, the protestant parts of Germany, reluctant to adopt any new idea coming out of the Vatican, had refused to adopt the Gregorian Calendar for years. (The English refused, too.) Therefore, while we know the date--according to the Julian Calendar--of the Baptism of J. S. Bach, the date of his birth according to our present-day Calendar is not known. I celebrate Bach's birthday on March 21 each year. In the year he was born (as far as I can tell) that day (according to that--inaccurate by modern standards--calendar, fell much later in the spring, or early summer. Nevertheless, this is the date--March 21--when I celebrate Bach's birthday. You will observe that there is no big fuss about Bach's birthday on the Internet; this is because there is no agreement as to when it is.

The music of Bach initially sounds like generic church music to anyone whose musical environment is mainstream pop/rock. But over time, each new piece of Bach's music you hear, more often than not, is a new treasure! The "sameness" of Bach evolves into astonishing variety.

Bach would be 336 years old yesterday, give or take a few weeks. Here's to Bach!

The few paragraphs above are what I wrote in my Facebook post for today.  I'm going to write a more expansive overview of Bach's music on our companion blog, Archie's Archives. 

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