Music and mentors
How we build on what has come before
It takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to listen to J.S. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, his “Little Organ Book” containing 46 chorales written mostly over a nine-year period in the early 1700s. The Orgelbüchlein was the standard method book on which organists would learn their craft and start to perfect some of the individual skills needed to be a master of the craft. As Bach described it on the title page, it was a book “[i]n which a beginning organist receives given instruction as to performing a chorale in a multitude of ways while achieving mastery in the study of the pedal, since in the chorales contained herein the pedal is treated entirely obbligato.” Yet, it was actually a little more than that—“simultaneously a compositional treatise, a collection of liturgical organ music, an organ method, and a theological statement.” Stinson, The Orgelbüchlein, 25. (I took two years of organ lessons in a former stage of life and let’s just say I did not get very far into the Orgelbüchlein.)
In addition to being a textbook of sorts, the Orgelbüchlein was also a liturgical work, providing music for the Church year. These chorales had a practical purpose, and Bach’s focus was on providing for the spiritual sustenance of the worshippers he was serving while working as a chorister, organist, and concertmaster at various churches. If you want to hear what compact, genius-level organ works sound like, take a listen for yourself. You can listen while seeing the music and lyrics for the chorales:
Or you can listen while seeing someone play:
Of course, the Orgenbüchlein was not all Bach wrote, although some consider it his first masterpiece. It was, in a sense, where Bach worked out a lot of things musically for himself. He grew adept at phrasing, learned to use the pedal as a distinct voice rather than an add-on, and introduced counterpuntal voicing in chorale settings—“one finds fully independent lines: the soprano, the alto, and tenor each have a melodic say.” Stinson, The Orgelbüchlein, xii. And as one progresses from the first to the last, the settings get more varied: “In each verse , somewhat monotonously, Bach assigns the chorale tune to the soprano instead of varying the voice register from verse to verse. The contrast between this rigidity and the relatively free treatment of chorale melodies in later entries is remarkable.” Stinson, at 21.
In its natural liturgical setting, these chorales are strikingly powerful, just like many of Bach’s work. He had a gift for expressing a wide variety of emotions through his compositions that could draw out emotions in the listener. One Bach biographer, Rick Marschall, recalls the advice of composer Michael Torke, who said, “Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B minor Mass?”
But the effect of Bach’s music goes well beyond individual enjoyment. Bach is in many ways the foundation stone for a lot of musicians throughout the last several centuries.
“I have a teacher called J.S. Bach.”
- Sting
Sting, Billy Corgan (yes, of Smashing Pumpkins), Bela Fleck, Procol Harum, Christopher Cross, Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, and others all attribute the inspiration for some of their most famous songs to Bach. “Blackbird”? Bach’s “Bouree in Em” “Bridge Over Troubled Water”? A Bach chorale. Steve Morse, a seven-time Grammy winner and guitarist for Deep Purple, says that Bach is an inspiration for him because he was, in part, the contemporary version of heavy metal. As another musician put it, “I wasn't consciously combining rock with classical, it's just that Bach's music was in me.” The People's Songs: The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records, at 82.
Paul Simon talks about how he took a melody from Bach for “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in this clip from the Dick Cavett show:
As Simon simply says, “that was in my mind.” Bach’s melodies had been ingrained in him such that they were some of the first sources he went to when composing. I think the melody of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” might be inspired by a Bach tune, but ends up a few steps removed, though the elements and basic shape of the melody may be the same. Yet Simon’s “American Tune” is an even clearer example of his directly stealing (or, since there’s no copyright, perhaps borrowing) from Bach and the chorale, “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” from Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion. Listen to 30 seconds of one, then 30 seconds of the other and hear it for yourself. (It’s a song that you might hear if you attend Good Friday services this year.) And even that was not original to Bach—he stole that famous tune from Hans Leo Hassler.
“The Orgelbüchlein’s highest purpose, however, like that of Bach’s music in general, is of a religious nature: service to God and the edification of humankind.” Stinson, The Orgelbüchlein, 34. The edification of humankind—Bach has the ability to bring wonderful things together, like the Mass in B minor and the Simpsons.
The musicians who have built on elements of Bach’s works added their own variations and diversions, of course, but the foundational elements are in a way still Bach’s. Bach is the ultimate musical mentor, shepherding his pupils through the centuries and leading them to create better art.
In my own life, I have only had a few people I have considered to be mentors. Some I have lost. A couple remain. Others I’ve lost touch with. But while I had them, these mentors provided me with invaluable guidance, not just about professional matters, but about life in general.
I recently had the pleasure to mentor two people who are considering future careers and life choices. A law school classmate of mine often takes on mentees if they are serious about the process, in part because he gained so much from mentors in his life. It’s a distinct privilege to be asked by someone for advice—for someone even to think that I have some advice to offer. And although it is cliché, when it is done right, mentors gain almost as much from mentoring as the people they mentor. None of us performs best on our own. Even elite athletes in solo sports have a team of people around them to support them. We can all use the help now and again. Mentors often start as acquaintances or sounding boards and they organically become friends and guides. I am working on building something similar to a group of mentors to help me in my own development.
In music, business, or life, mentors do not need to be living. Books can serve as useful proxies for mentors. Books like Tim Ferriss’s Tribe of Mentors are good repositories for a lot of advice in a relatively compact form. But you can have Dale Carnegie, Jocko Willink, and others mentor you just by reading books. That’s the method Tony Robbins used when he started out. He did not have the connections or mentors that others had, so he used books and talks on tapes as his mentors.
We turn to mentors naturally for academic work. Google Scholar gets it right when it encourages its users to “Stand on the Shoulders of Giants,” a reference to an Isaac Newton quote: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” No matter what our academic or professional field, we are all indebted to the body of knowledge that has come before us. Most of us are not breaking new ground or developing new theories. We are building on the achievements of others.
Just like a library of information may provide us with the materials we need to expand ideas, mentors and teachers do the same thing. I would not be the same without my mentors. Mendelssohn, Widor, and other famous composers who studied the Orgelbüchlein and implemented elements of Bach’s compositions into their own works would not be the same without that experience.
Good mentors and mentees enter into the relationship the same way an eager organ student would while sitting at Bach’s side, eager to soak in all they can learn and incorporate into their own lives. Bach’s music, like good mentorship, expands our horizons and exposes us to new possibilities and realities. Give it a try.
“Beethoven tells you what it's like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe.”
―Douglas Adams
Remember to turn every page. Enjoy your weekend, as well as Easter and Passover if you celebrate. Listen to some Bach, and let me know whether you need anything.
Best, Aaron