During a live recital of J.S Bach organ partitas, played on a church organ in central Melbourne, I could hear the sounds associated with a modern city in the odd note rest or in the silence between partitas. It was a contradiction of sounds like the ticking of pedestrian crossing signals, dinging tram bells that all emanated from the street outside. Re-adjusting to these sounds felt paradoxical after being so consumed by Bach's 300 year-old organ works. It's an interesting thing to hear Bach in the context of a contemporary, technological and fast-paced society.
It made me think of some of the older buildings in the city: how they (in some cases) continue to inspire and serve contemporary needs, and how they've been adapted to do so. I thought of this church conversion in East Melbourne:
