Oh my aching Bach!

Yesterday (Wednesday, March 20th, 2013) was the first day of Spring.
More important to me is that today (Thursday, March 21st, 2013) is Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthday. He was born in 1685.
Bach is my favorite composer.
I’ve come to like romantic composers, particularly Ravel. But Bach is a slam-dunk.
I was fortunate to attend a college whose Music-Department worshipped Bach, Houghton College (“HO-tin;” not “how” or “who”) south of Rochester (NY).
What a pleasant surprise that was. Although I’d say my love of Bach was fanned by that college.
I would have appreciated Bach, but Houghton was playing him all the time.
They loved Bach so much they held a Bach-festival every four years, the idea being to expose every student to a Bach-festival.
Mine was my Senior year.
Since I was fairly good at drawing, festival organizers enlisted me to do a Bach poster.
So I did. I redrew the typical Bach rendering, depicted above, with Bach winking.
The entire college was appalled. I had sacrileged Bach.
I’m sure their reaction was partly prompted by their perception I was an Of-the-Devil ne’er-do-well.
I’m sure if one of their favored ones had drawn Bach winking, they would have been more understanding.
A friend who graduated Houghton much later than me wondered about this.
“So Bach sits at the right-hand of God?” he asked.
I was surprised by the college’s reaction.
I certainly wasn’t making fun of Bach.
Thankfully the Bach-festival went on despite my poster, which was incinerated.
I used to play Bach on the college pianos.
My piano ability vanished with my stroke.
But back then I played “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring segued into “Louie-Louie.”
I think Bach would have liked it.

• “Houghton College,” is from where I graduated with a BA in 1966. I’ve never regretted it, although I graduated a Ne’er-do-Well, without their blessing. Houghton is an evangelical liberal-arts college. (My wife, since deceased, also graduated there, same class as me.)
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.