I was checking out my "Websites That I Read Every Day" sidebar list, and read Kim Du Toit's article on a Jay Nordlinger (NRO) post. (I won't get too deep into the Links. Read Kim, you can find your way to Nordlinger and NRO ... if you don't already follow them.)
Kim was talking about his musical interests, and mentioned the chorale "Jesu, Joy of Man Desiring" (by Johann Sebastian Bach).
I'm a big Bach fan, and "Jesu" has such a powerful central theme that I, of course, watched the performance to which he had linked.
After that 3-minute performance by the Westminster Cathedral Choir, I found another link ["Bach To The Future"] to a performance by (supposedly) the same musical piece ... except that it was entirely instrumental, and done in an entirely different style.
During Bach's productive life, music (and all forms of art in the Western World) were typically created to glorify a Christian God. This piece is somewhat more focused on the music, and it's interpretation.
I suppose that there are people who would argue that this arrangement, this performance, detracts from the original intent of the composition.
For me, I can't help but think that, if Bach were composing today, he would be delighted by the variation. He was too devoted to music and its expression of JOY! to feel otherwise.
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