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Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80, J. S. Bach; visualized by Jack Ox ©1979.
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The artist explains: I learned to play the harpsichord so that I would be able to paint J. S. Bach. This work was started in San Diego and finished in NYC. The architecture comes from Balboa Park in San Diego. The woman standing beside the assembled tetrahedron is a young me. Because I studied harpsichord, I learned to play figure base, giving me the beginning of my understanding of music theory. I also learned about consonance and dissonance by tuning my instrument and learning to count the beats in a fifth for well-tempered tuning. This painting can be hung on the wall as three triangles, or it can lean together like a sculpture that forms a tetrahedron. I used this form because it includes three triangles. Bach often used the number three, in counting the number of measures. For instance, there are 57 measures in this cantata, which is divisible by three. It is more usual to have a number divisable by four. I also noticed that his melodies often showed triangular patterns. This focus on 'three' made sense because three invokes the Trinity and Bach was composing religious music. This painting/sculpture is still together and stored at Intermedia Projects. It is for sale and can either take the sculptural format or be hung on the wall as three triangles.