Passacaglia

While Listening to Passacaglia

While listening to
Händel’s Passacaglia in G minor, HWV 432,
a tear slowly rolled down my cheek.
Why does this sadness sit so deeply in me?

Variations unfolding
upon a repeating bass —
not excessively tragic,
yet solemn and dignified.

From the Spanish pasar, to pass,
and calle, a road —
Passacaglia.

As if walking along a path,
repeated footsteps carry me forward.
Was it called
the dignity of human endurance?

A short and simple eight-bar pattern,
endlessly repeated,
brings order and steadiness into my life.
It hurts, it is sad —
yet it does not drive me to the edge.
Instead, it holds me.

“I may be shaken,
but the ground beneath my feet
does not move.”

A piece where emotion stands open,
and space for interpretation is wide —
a music in which
the performer’s character is revealed.

A quiet dignity
of a human being
striving not to be shaken

Passacaglia.

*these are my own paintings *