The Green caldron - University Library

16 The Green Caldron
The acceptance of the word "metaphysical" and its meaning involves an
admission by man of his limitations, an acceptance of the fact that humanity
is not quite able to explain the phenomenon of life by the use of physical
laws alone. A belief in the metaphysical is faith—faith in the belief that
there is something above man and some things which man is not ready to
know about his world. It is also doubt—a doubt in men who do not admit to
anything distinctively spiritual or transcendent and who, in their haste to
simplify, neglect a consideration of the traits of man which deny rigid
classification.
The word "metaphysical" is "concerned with the questions of truth and
reality," ^ and thus exactness is difficult to arrive at. In trying to comprehend
the problems of reality, one inevitably encounters obstacles and inaccuracies.
In labeling something as "metaphysical," one must accept both the word's
limitations (in the sense that it is vague) and its lack of limitations, since
it is applied to the broad, grand, unsolved (and perhaps unsolvable) problems
of life.
' Encyclopedia Americana.
Bach's Third Suite for Orchestra
in D Major
John Koenig
Rhetoric 102, Theme 11
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) IS NOW REGARDED AS
one of the most important of the great composers. Although he wrote
during a period when the musical world was experimenting with many
new forms, forms which would evolve into the musical structures of Mozart,
Beethoven, and other later composers. Bach continued to compose music in
the style of the older baroque masters. Looked upon as old-fashioned in
his day, Bach succeeded in writing music which is considered the culmination
of the baroque age. Examples of almost every form of baroque music can
be found among his works, and with him these forms reached their greatest
heights of beauty and power.
Bach was able to reach these heights because he did not confine himself
to one national school of musical thought but consciously fused the best
characteristics of each style prevalent during the baroque period. The French,
the Italians, and the Germans had each evolved distinct national concepts of
music. Bach's works, containing elements of all three, owe their artistic value