The prelude and the postlude this morning serve as historical bookends to what is known as the Baroque Era. I’ve spoken about music from this time period before, but specifically, I’d like you to notice how different these two compositions sound. Even though they basically come from the same time period, what makes them different is the result of about 600 miles of distance.

What was going on in France during the 18^th century was very, very different from what was going on in Germany. This has so much to do with the fact that the protestant reformation didn’t take a stronghold in France as it did in Germany. The lavishness of church music that led to the splendor and radiance of the Baroque period was far more dramatic and grandiose in France than it was in Germany. To put it in layman’s terms, I feel that the music of 18^th-century Germany was far more cerebral. Bach in particular, takes a certain amount of brainpower to comprehend. If you compare it to the music of 18^th-century France, you can’t experience the totality of the music without having to really pay attention to it. The French-Baroque masters were more overtly dramatic with the way they expressed themselves. The lavish decadence of Louis XIV certainly had lots to do with the demand for this style of composition too!

I point this comparison out to you for a number of reasons, but mainly to help you understand the variants in music from certain regions, demarcated by differences in geography, culture, leadership, and church influence. The physical distance of say Leipzig to Paris is less than 600 miles. That’s about the same mileage as Tampa to Charlotte, NC. In the days of Bach and Charpentier, travel was not as accessible as it is today, so it makes sense that people lived more insulated lives. Today, however, we’re “connected” in so many ways via technology and the internet, yet people are feeling more and more disconnected from one another. As you can see in this brief history lesson, people were disconnected back then too, but in a different way. Even though they were separated by space, they seemed to understand that the expression of beauty was paramount to building strong culture and community within their regions of the continent.

Today I invite you to hear how much variation there is in the specific sounds of these two compositions, but also to hear how the common bond of beauty and radiance exists within their creativity. Living in a more and more diverse world doesn’t mean we’re growing apart, it means that we need to learn more about each other. I do hope there will one day be a return to artistic expression that builds community and promotes beauty in our lives – not division. I feel the survival of the human race depends on our reconnections with the divine through the simple tools of artistic expression that were so freely given to us by our creator. Soli deo gloria!