Shapcott's Variation on Schoenberg’s Orchestration of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, ‘St Anne’

Where does it come from this passion

for layers? I could eat the lexicon,

breathe whole fugues in German and Latin,

rub notes on my skin to make the pores sing.

I love it, like this, when I lose touch

with whose the voice is, whose the fingers

on the bow, the pen, whose mouth

the noise belongs to in the end.

Numbers make me tremble in spring.

I want to counterpoint them until I careen

off the edge of the world disputing

with God himself about the number seven.

JO SHAPCOTT