Jonah Lynch. Mirth and Freedom in The Magic Flute

From the Winter, 2006 issue: Jonah Lynch, Mirth and Freedom in The Magic Flute (pdf).

From the text:

Indeed no words can better be used to describe Mozart’s music than “sublime” and “natural.” Beethoven is heroic, tragic—although at the end, he too can be sublime, with the autumnal serenity of a warrior turned contemplative; Bach erects his marvelously ornate cathedrals of sound—and occasionally he too passes into a timeless realm which could be truly termed sublime, though rarely natural. But Mozart’s melodies carry something of the birth of an infant God, the remarkable union of opposite absolutes, total simplicity and infinite depth. Only here is the completely free and ever-surprising united to formal structural perfection. Mozart speaks with human words, as God spoke his Word through a birth, a life, and a death. Yet in those simple events lay the Incarnation, the eternal mission of the Son from the Father, suffering which destroys death, and transfiguration into deathless life. (full text)

Also by Jonah Lynch:  Music, Silence, and Technology

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Music, Silence, and Technology

From the Winter issue:

Jonah Lynch, Music, Silence, and Technology (pdf, 2009)

From the text:

A few years ago, I received an iPod as a package deal with my computer. Everyone else was using them, so I filled it with beautiful music and put it on while biking to work. It was just like having a soundtrack to my life — gliding along K Street in Washington, D.C. I had the theme of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on, and everything was dreamlike and peaceful. Then it finished, the first variation started, and the very same reality seemed frantic and edgy. I rode harder, swerving through traffic. Then an epic-sounding variation made me feel as if I were in a film, invincible, untouchable — except that I was actually in a much harder, more dangerous world, riding between buses and lobbyists. I took off the iPod, and haven’t worn it on a bike since. . . .  Complete text (pdf).

Also by Jonah Lynch: Mirth and Freedom in The Magic Flute (pdf, 2006).