Bach - Magnificat - Omnes generationes - number symbolism

What is the secret meaning of this movement?

Source: Zoltán Göncz, Bach testamentuma [Bach's Testament], Budapest, 2009, p. 68--69.

"It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order..." (Luke 1:3)

Performed by
Emma Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb, Emily Van Evera (sopranos)
Margaret Cable, Caroline Trevor (altos)
Howard Crook, Wilfried Jochens, Charles Daniels (tenors)
Stephen Charlesworth, Simon Grant, David Thomas, Peter Kooy (basses)
Taverner Consort & Players
Conducted by Andrew Parrott

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bach
• Magnificat
• Omnes
• generationes
• number
• symbolism

[Tulipso]

@zephyrswan: He is counting every time the theme is restated in one of the voices. It appears Bach repeated the theme exactly as many times as there are generations in Christ's ancestry.

[TheMrDddreess112]

WOW!!!

[waeman]

Bach is the engineer of Music !

[bangalore117]

@AxelMa06

hahahaha t'es rigolo 

[qxXFidoXxp]

@Shikadyarioto Your spelling really pissed me off... Lol.

[21Gnardawg]

I never noticed that... O.O

[AxelMa06]

La video est pourri ils chante comme une casserole

[Shikadyarioto]

Anyone good at maths can craft these relationships and get whatever number he choises; inversely, he can pick a determinate number and build relationships as instances of composition.

[Shikadyarioto]

The relationship between several things and a number cannot be used in order to postulate a system (as if there were a coherence behind operating as a structure) because is the assumption of that same coherence wich leads the process of serching instances. What we're facing here are the consecuences of a classic petitio principii.

[Shikadyarioto]

Im sorry, but i think there's one "omnes genetiones" missing at 0:58, box 23, bass line, so the parallel doesn't exist. This is pure numerology, we cannot be sure if Bach was aware of every single case of these coincidences or if they're mostly fortunate and exciting parallelisms. I love Bach, but i desagree with these "exultation beyond any limits" of his evident both matemathical and logical skills.

[jschubart1]

@Tulipso How do you count the "generations in Christ's ancestry"? Do you start with Adam & Eve or with David?

Setting aside that thorny problem, the real difficulty with your theory is that the words of the Magnificat aka the "Song of Mary" are about Mary, not Christ. The words "all generations (shall call me blessed)" refer to the generations AFTER Mary, not the generations before Christ!

[jschubart1]

@thegoddescomposer You merely postulate that Bach was using the Roman alphabet because that's the only way you can force the letters in "J.S.BACH" to add up to 41.

But Bach and his contemporaries routinely used the letters I and V. When Bach abbreviates the prayer "Jesu, juva" in his manuscripts (as did many artists since the Middle Ages) , he writes "J.J.", not "I.I." How do you explain THAT?

J. S. BACH = 43.