A century after Bach — struck blind, died
of a stroke — Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn stumbled
on the signed bound manuscript stuck inside
Christian Ludwig’s files — a gift he grumbled
and never acknowledged. Nobly bowing,
Dehn saw it published, blessing to us all:
six Baroque vessels of cascading strings
softly caressed by harpsichord and calls
for basso continuo. Who here’s fallen
in love (or hoped to) throughout the Fifth’s
Allegro—violin, cello, flute blend-
ing, swirling, swelling? We celebrate thrift
of imagination, of dreams, feeling
magic depths each jeweled note’s revealing.
Roger Armbrust
December 18,
2012
