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RE: Membra Jesu Nostri by Buxtehude: A musician's perspective
It's fascinating to hear how deeply this music affects you as a violinist, despite not being a religious person. I've never heard of Buxtehude before, but I like that Baroque passion.
Yes... it is often a debate that is had... whether or not a musician has to be religious to be able to convey the sacred works with the same "feeling"... obviously, I am not for that view. Music is a craft, with sound as the canvas. A sculptor doesn't need to believe in unicorns to carve a great looking unicorn sculpture!
Especially in the time of the Baroque, music is described by contemporary sources as a craft, a tool for evoking and resonating emotions in others... nothing more magical than that! It was only after the Victorian Romanticism that music (and the musician) took on a more modern aspect of an art and an artiste...
I like that analogy, though I haven't seen many great looking unicorn sculptures! You're right though, you don't have to be religious to feel the emotions in religious music.