BEFORE AND AFTER THE DETENTION: ALBERT SCHWEITZER AND HIS FRUSTRATED PROJECT

This is the first translation of Albert Schweitzer's Preface of 1914 ("Die Chorale uber die Katechismuslieder") to his planned practical edition of Johann Sebastian Bach's Clavier Ubung III. The Preface failed to be edited together with music because of the outbreak of WW 1. Introduction by the translator ("Before and after the detention [...]") deals with the dramatic circumstances (in Schweitzer's life) preceding the event. Most important decisions and efforts of Schweitzer as well as his spiritual quest and his personal path towards Jesus Christ are taken into consideration, and all these important data reveal this person as a true Saint of the Western civilization of the 20th century. The conceptions of Schweitzer's Preface offered here should be realized in that context. For example, his idea of "immaterielle Musik" in Clavier Ubung III, with its emanation beyond specific organ peculiarities and accents both in texture and composition could be elucidated only in very subtle way. The same is to be done with the conception of organ and harpsichord styles as alien and incompatible with one another as it is revealed in Schweitzer's discourse. Hence the quest for reliability of translating procedures while dealing with Schweitzer's inspiring intellectual finesses.