I can't believe he was real. He doesn't feel like a historical figure, but a force of nature. It's as if ideal music existed on some unreachable plane, and he was simply the conduit. When one listens to his music, one catches a glimpse into the universal. What's especially remarkable is the range of ways that vision is expressed: sometimes tragic, serious, lively, joyous, meditative, pastoral, intricate. It doesn't even sound like Baroque music, but like something timeless, from a place outside history.