Music and Mysticism

 In my day job I have been translating a major academic work on the Ba'al Shem Tov, the eighteenth century mystic whose disciples founded Hasidism, making him one of the most influential figures in early modern Judaism. I am very far from being a mystic myself, but sometimes it seems that only mysticism can account for things.

Recently I was listening to a jazz streaming service, and they played a performance by a pianist, Julian Waterfall Pollack, that was so beautiful, I had to find more about him. He is only 32 and has already accomplished a great deal in many areas of music. He is another one of those child prodigies who amaze us. I was slightly acquainted with one of them, Ariel Lanyi, when he was a little boy. Now he is in his twenties and already well known and admired. And I saw a marvelous documentary about an American boy, Kim Armstrong, who was both a musical and a mathematical prodigy as a child. The Internet is full of clips with performances by these amazing children.

How can a child know so much about music at such an early age, and become such a brilliant performer so quickly? The mystical answer, that they are reincarnations of great musicians of the past, is tempting, but obviously unverifiable. I always wonder, by the way, whether having such a massive head start over ordinarily talented musicians gives them a lasting advantage when they reach maturity.

As for mysticism as an explanation, recently I have gone back to working slowly through Bach's sonatas for flute, not that I ever expect to be able to play them well enough to perform them even informally. The experience of playing this music is one of conversation with one of the greatest musical geniuses of all times. The beauty of his music is inexplicable in rational terms. Why is a series of sixteenth notes that he wrote so much more fascinating and elevating than similar runs written by Locatelli (another composer I was working on recently)? Calling the answer mystical is merely a mystification, an admission of failure at explanation. However, why try to explain it? Explanation is less important than appreciation and admiration - and enjoyment.