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Comment by cgore | Hacker News Reader

Bach was deeply religious, and not just because of some lap-dog sense of "that's who's paying the bills." He signed most of his works as "SDG", short for "Soli Deo Gloria", which roughly translates as "to God alone belongs all glory. His meaning being that any ability Bach thought he had was solely just God showing off: Bach made beautiful music, but God made Bach, and he knew it.

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That is a great quote. I used it in the dedication section of a book I wrote recently. Bach is fascinating on many levels - lots of C.S. types quickly appreciate the structure/counterpoint in all of his instrumental music. But because so much of his music was written for a worship context, a whole additional dimension can be seen where he uses musical devices to comment on or support words being sung.

lots of C.S. types quickly appreciate the structure/counterpoint in all of his instrumental music

What on Earth does that mean?

You can read that as "interesting patterns" for an approximate idea of what it means.

No, I wasn't asking to be patronized. If I want to know what counterpoint is I'll look it up. I'm asking what on earth it has to do with computer science. Sure there's the Hofstadter book but with no explanation this comes off as merely pretentious. Do resist the temptation to patronize and mansplain though; I know it is one if the things we as a profession excel at.

I wasn't trying to be patronizing.

Clearly we both know you can look up "counterpoint" if you want to, so I read into your post you were a tiny bit interested but not so interested as to bother looking it up.

I'd hoped the shorthand would give you enough additional idea that you could decide whether doing so was worth it for you, the link between interesting patterns and computer science being hopefully obvious.

It's also an era-fitting and socially acceptable way to humble-brag, if I'm wearing my cynic hat.

Bach was humble enough and gifted enough that he didn't have to brag. I'm fairly sure he meant what he wrote when he did that. This is not DHH bitching about how he came in second in a car race with the better car.

During his own time Bach was not even hailed as a great composer, his genius and contributions only gained appreciation long after he died.

> he \emph{believed} in it

ftfy

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