I do wish Bach had been a Catholic

Although Bach wrote a great deal of sacred music, some of which is sort of appropriate for a Catholic liturgy, I sometimes imagine how our already rich liturgical tradition would have greatly benefitted from an extra Bach boost. I say that some of it is appropriate for the Catholic liturgy because the best known example, the Mass in B Minor, is far too big to ever be used as an actual setting (I'd be happy to see someone try, though). Imagine if instead of several hundred Lutheran cantatas Bach had written several hundred missa brevi! The thought of it literally makes my mouth water. Imagine going to a mass in the extraordinary form with a Bach setting being used.

However, I might be wrong in thinking that the Mass in B Minor is the only one even vaguely suitable for a Catholic liturgy. Did he write any others of more maneagable size (I know already of the so-called Lutheran "masses"). Whatever the case, it irks me when obvious geniuses of the quality of Bach were silly enough to not be Catholics. C'mon Johann. What were you thinking? Perhaps he was too focused on putting out music of such stunning quality that he didn't have time to focus too much on the theological issues? After all, Mozart was a freemason.

Well, this post has disintegrated from a sigh in the direction of non-Catholic genius to incomprehensible blithering. Just listen to Bach. He makes eminently more sense than me.