Many Christians celebrate Trinity Sunday on the first Sunday after Pentecost. What is interesting about this is that it is the only Christian feast that celebrates a doctrine as opposed to an event or person. This doctrine – the Holy Trinity: One God in three Persons – has been discussed and argued throughout history and is regarded as a holy mystery. And like many mysteries, people have tried to wrap their brains around it and explain it using our limited, logical speech.

This is where, perhaps, a mind like Johann Sebastian Bach could help out the philosophers and theologians. His Clavierubung III is a marvelous piece of music, but it’s practically a work of theology as well. It will be impossible to unpack this volume in one blog post. In this book of music, one of the few that Bach managed to publish in his lifetime, Bach shows his heartfelt devotion to God and gives an homage to Martin Luther, who was seen as the liberator of Protestant Christians and in many ways, the founder of modern Germany.

The Prelude & Fugue in Eb are the first and last pieces in the Clavierubung III. Besides the less subtle use of Eb – a key with three flats – the prelude can be divided into three distinct themes. Each theme, however, can not stand alone; they require the other two themes to complete the work. The fugue is actually three different fugues. Despite the uniqueness of each fugue, the subject of the first fugue finds its way (unsurprisingly) into the second and third; so, what seems like three fugues is actually one.

Beethoven was not known for being a polite and gentle man. When he was alive, the European ruling class called all the shots, and musicians were most certainly considered to be of the servant class. So it’s natural that he championed Napoleon‘s revolutions against tyrannical monarchies, so much so that Beethoven decided to dedicate his third symphony to the Frenchman. Well, it was a good idea until Napoleon declared himself emperor, at which point Beethoven angrily ripped off the front page of his symphony and violently rubbed out Bonaparte’s name, leaving a gaping hole in the page.

The fourth movement of the symphony is a set of variations on an original theme Beethoven had written earlier. Putting political and military personages aside, Beethoven is both revolutionary and heroic in this music: Revolutionary because he expressed his unbridled emotions and wrote what he wanted to, practically ushering in the romantic era; Heroic because there are parts in this movement where I believe Beethoven becomes completely lost and doesn’t know what to do next. He doesn’t have Mozart’s grace and complete control over his score; he doesn’t have Bach’s brain for organization, which knew the limits of a piece of music based on the first couple measures. Beethoven has to fight for it – and fight he does, with bravura that you have to admire.

Don’t ask me, I didn’t come up with that.

Maybe from boredom, maybe from drinking, or maybe from a sudden burst of creative energy at 4am – whatever the cause, sometimes people write wacky lyrics to instrumental pieces. Sometimes they’re very clever – for example, I’ve heard these words sung to the opening bassoon solo in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring:

“I am not an English horn, I am not an English horn, this goes too high for me, I am not an English horn.”

Another one which is hilarious (albeit on an esoteric level) is this text for the secondary theme in the slow movement of Franck’s Symphony:

“Cesar Franck composed the best he could; his music sounds like Brahms, but not as good.”

But then there’s this one, which is used primarily as a mnemonic device for music students to remember the melody of the minuet from Mozart‘s Symphony in g minor:

“Insane men, ripping out their hair.” Wat?

I can almost rationalize these lyrics: the melody of this movement is somewhat in 2/4 time, while the dance itself is in 3/4 time. It’s like trying to dance a polka when you’re supposed to be dancing a waltz. If you feel the melody in 2/4, then you’ll find yourself adding a beat here or there to compensate, and it can make you insane, possibly causing you to rip out your hair. Whatever, I didn’t come up with it.