In the article I recently posted about Byung-Chul Han a detail caught my eye, that he has a grand piano next to his writing desk, and that he plays the same Bach Aria on it every day as part of his writing process. I’ve had trouble finding my own entry point into the imposingly large number of Bach compositions but I was intrigued by the song that is such an inextricable part of Han’s daily writing and thinking.

The truth is I still don’t think I “get it” the way some people see perfect mathematical beauty in his writing but I do think this short song does have incredible depth as the melody and countermelody are like two winding parallel rivers that occasionally intersect. I downloaded the sheet music and it is a true doozy to try to synchronize the left and right hands despite the deceptively simple sound.

Although it is originally written for harpsichord and usually played on piano. I think this adaptation for baroque instruments played by the group Nevermind brings out a lot of the innate beauty of the song that was hiding a bit on my first couple listens.

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