My composition Chaconne and Fugue, completed last year, (fugue is based on the so-called B-A-C-H motif – a sequence of notes B-A-C-H honoring the name of the great master of fugues, J.S. Bach). I have never studied music academically, and to be honest, I can’t even read standard sheet music. However, this video demonstrates how the piece is played, in case someone wants to learn it visually without sheet music. The video was made using the “See Music” software, which converts MIDI files into piano key animations. By the way, that wig guy in the image is me! I asked ChatGPT to draw me in 18th-century baroque style, and the likeness turned out surprisingly accurate. The term chaconne refers to a musical invention typically built on a repeating chord progression or bass line, over which variations are played. In my own piece, the same harmonic progression heard at the beginning repeats throughout the entire 12-minute composition, in various forms – which is why I titled it Chaconne (it also got inspiration from Bach’s own Chaconne). The fugue, on the other hand, is one of the most intricate forms of musical composition. It develops a theme (called the subject) in multiple voices that enter one after another, each at a different pitch, and then proceeds to vary and interweave the theme contrapuntally – meaning multiple melodic lines are played simultaneously in harmonic unity. In the video, I’ve marked each appearance of the B-A-C-H motif in the fugue section, to help the listener better understand how a fugue works.

Sometimes I wonder what’s the point of spending time on something like this, when nowadays even artificial intelligence can compose in the style of Bach. But on the other hand, AI can never convey the same emotion that a human being can. Especially the opening section of this piece is filled with deep emotion. I composed that part before my brother’s death, yet it still captures many of the feelings I experienced at those days. The piece begins with a sense of profound, bottomless sorrow and emptiness, and ends in raw rage and a justified anger—even directed at God Himself. Perhaps that’s something anyone who has faced the darker side of life can relate to at some point. Yet from the cross of Golgotha we can discover a God who is not distant or indifferent to human suffering, but One who carries it with us and for us—a God who weeps with us and rejoices with us.