Bach to Bach Twelve Healers

IMPATIENS
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C minor from Book 1

This flower remedy brings patience and empathy to a state of irritable tension.
The music composed to match this remedy is a bright up tempo piece in 2/2 time with an alternation of straight and swung rhythms and lots of syncopation. It begins with a tense energy but as the piece goes on the mood lightens and becomes more playful.
The Prelude is busy with constant semiquavers, and then just when you feel the energy really has to dissipate it gets even faster. The Fugue has great rhythmic energy and as it proceeds there is an increasing sense of clarity and focus and the feeling that eventually all will be well.

CLEMATIS
J.S.Bach : Prelude and Fugue in E flat minor from Book 1

This flower remedy brings creativity and rootedness to a state of daydreaming and mental delusion.
The music composed to match this remedy has a slow Latin feel in 4/4 time. Long notes in the melody create a dreamy mood. In the middle section the chords become more clearly focused and when the opening material returns there is a much more grounded sense to the music.
The Prelude is dreamy with arpeggiated chords and the feeling is one of free improvisation as if caught up completely in a dream landscape with no reference to the awake reality. The Fugue in three voices is a gradual unfolding and opening out, as if the dream energy becomes increasingly lucid.

MIMULUS
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G minor from Book 1

This flower remedy brings confidence and courage to a state of fearful hypersensitivity.
The music composed to match this remedy begins hesitantly without a clear rhythmic focus, but the elements for courage to emerge are already present and as the pulse becomes more apparent the music blossoms and opens up a world of new possibilities..
The Prelude is strangely hesitant with a long trill and semiquavers followed by an almost stuttering rhythm with demisemiquavers, which seems unsure of where it is going. The Fugue begins calmly and the descending minor sixth seems to suggest acceptance and growing courage. Towards the end there is a brief journey through the relative major key which reflects the underlying hope and sense that there is ultimately nothing to fear.

AGRIMONY
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in D minor from Book 1

This flower remedy brings discernment and inner joy to a state of hiding from the dark shadow side of life, an integration of the beauty and the pain of the world together.
The music composed to match this remedy begins with apparent confidence and conviction but it is only through a slower more expressive section in the middle that the real integration of light and dark takes place. When the opening material returns it is like the sun returning and being truly appreciated more because of the darkness that we have passed through.
The Prelude has a great restlessness with lots of semiquaver triplets which never give space for any real depth to be experienced. The Fugue has a heroic quality which seems to encompass the essential oneness of human experience. The final resolution in the major contains within its joy the resonance of all the world’s trials and tribulations.

CHICORY
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A minor from Book 1

This flower remedy brings genuine caring for others to a state of self-centred possessiveness.
The music composed to match this remedy begins with a bustling syncopated motif suggestive of wanting to be in control. There is a bluesy improvised section which has a sense of frustration of not getting what you think you want. The music then transforms into something slower and more meditative, suggesting making contact with what you actually need. From this emerges the calm thoughtful ending where there is a deep sense of flowing energy towards others.
The Prelude has a spiky quality with lots of running semiquavers and use of diminished seventh chord patterns. The Fugue is one of the most extended in the whole collection and is very busy and insistent. It suggests trying too hard to help other people, too hard to stay in control. Eventually there is a coda where the tension that has built up dissolves and the diminished seventh chord finds a final resolution to the major.

VERVAIN
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor from Book 1

This flower remedy brings self-discipline and restraint to a state of excessive idealism and intensity.
The music composed to match this remedy begins with complex searching harmonies feeling their way towards some deeper truth but not quite getting there. There is a
transformation into a repeated syncopated bass pattern against which is juxtaposed an Aeolian mode improvisation. It is as if there is a huge struggle to hold together the discipline of the one hand with the freedom of the other. These are the themes of this complex and intense piece which eventually finds a simple resolution.
The Prelude is very elaborate with lots of ornamentation as if searching for some perfect state which is not quite attainable. The Fugue is in five parts and one of the most complex in the whole collection. The musical subject itself however is very simple, and it is this ultimate simplicity which is revealed shining through with great luminosity in the final few bars.

CENTAURY
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in F minor from Book 2

This flower remedy brings clarity and discernment of purpose to a state of over subservience. The music composed to match this remedy begins uncertainly, groping towards a pulse which might give some direction and stability. After a while a clear pulse emerges and the harmonies become more stable. The melody ‘takes off’ and the nervous energy relaxes, the piece fading into the distance with a clearer sense of playfulness and positive direction. The short broken phrases of the Prelude convey a nervous breathlessness, as if it is hard to trust that there will ever be really enough energy for what needs to be done in life. In the Fugue, a three part invention without a lot of complexity, the atmosphere lightens and there is more a sense of life being fun. It suggests the clarity which comes from letting go of one’s own and others’ expectations.

CERATO
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in F sharp minor from Book 2

This flower remedy brings intuition and inner balance to a state of gullibility and lack of confidence.
The music composed to match this remedy begins uncertainly in terms of pulse and harmony with an emotional resonance of longing. It gradually blossoms out into a beautifully balanced melody with chord changes which suggest a flowering of intuitive wisdom.
The Prelude is a musical wonder – complex and delicate with various groups of notes in 2s, 3s and 4s creating a labyrinthine texture but without any emotional confidence. The Fugue has three different motifs and builds in complexity towards a point where if everything is just left to be itself light and balance are revealed. It beautifully reflects the inner growth that the Cerato remedy facilitates.

SCLERANTHUS
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in E minor from Book 1

This flower remedy brings versatile determination and balance to a state of erratic mood swings caused by an inability to come to clear decisions.
The music composed to match this remedy has a rhythmic uncertainty built into the structure with alternate bars of 8/8 and 7/8 time. The mood swings wildly from fragments of melody to solid loud chords to uncertain harmonies to simple major chords. The overall movement is from an energy which is over the top or out of control to one which shows that the same musical material contains within itself the seeds of balance and equanimity.
The Prelude has many shifts of mood and just when you feel the tension has to soon resolve the music suddenly gets even faster and even more intense.
The Fugue, in contrast, is simple – in only two voices like a two part invention. With its minor arpeggios and chromatic embellishments it demonstrates great versatility and a clear balance between the two sides of the brain.

WATER VIOLET
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in E major from Book 1

This flower remedy brings humility and wisdom to a state of isolated withdrawal and arrogance.
The music composed to match this remedy begins with very clear simple harmonies. A more rhythmic section suggesting more involvement with other people is interrupted by withdrawal into solipsistic reveries. The opening returns with more rhythmic impetus, and the withdrawals become shorter and much more focused. Humility and wisdom bring great joy as the piece ends with a third statement of the simple opening harmonies.
This Prelude has a delicacy and beauty of ornamentation which suggests the wisdom of the Water Violet remedy. In the Fugue, the gentle interweaving of the three voices suggest the taking of that wisdom into the social arena, a free sharing of the experience of balance and beauty.

GENTIAN
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A flat major from Book 1

This flower remedy brings faith and the ability to live with conflict to a state of doubt and depression.
The music composed to match this remedy begins with a sense of a joyful journey in the major key. The journey is interrupted by episodes with dissonant chords and strange
rhythms – the balance is upset. Gradually, some of the dissonance finds its way into the journey and the joy into the episodes in between. By the end, all the elements of life are heard and felt in a deeper harmony together.
The Prelude has a clear rhythmic and harmonic opening and the music goes its way on a purposeful journey but without any sense of incorporating conflict. In contrast, the Fugue in four voices seems to show that complexity can be encountered without losing the sense of on-going purpose. The complexity is fully included within the journey.

ROCK ROSE
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in B flat minor from Book 1

This flower remedy, the last of the twelve healers, brings courage and steadfastness to a state of acute fear and panic.
The music composed to match this remedy begins tentatively with very low notes and a sense of uneasy disquiet. When the main motif is reached it is fragmented and somehow stretches the limits of our perception. Very slowly, the melody grows and the harmonies stabilise and we realise that within the material of our own fear and panic lies the positive connections that we need. There is a deep sense of having passed through a great darkness and found peace on the other side.
The Prelude begins very slowly and tentatively as if searching the emotional depths for signs of hope. The main motif of the Fugue in five parts contains the unusual interval of a minor ninth. This stretching beyond the octave suggests a deepening of the spiritual landscape which befits this great healing remedy, which forms part of the famous Rescue Remedy. The climax of this Fugue with its overlapping musical entries conveys a deep sense that whatever happens in life there is ultimately nothing to fear.