I am listening to Beethoven's Diabelli Variations as I type, in honor of Bill Buckley, who did the same the night before his death. Larry Perelman, a pianist and dear friend of WFB's, played the piece for him at a dinner at Bill's home in Stamford, Connecticut on Tuesday evening. Perelman reports "that it was just like any other Buckley dinner — i.e., it started with cocktails and ended with cognac," which I am delighted to hear. Bill Buckley enjoyed every moment of life until the very end. May we all be so blessed.
Perelman also reports that Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto was Bill Buckley's favorite. As it is mine. That doesn't mean a lot, I know, but there is something validating in finding that you share something in common with a great man.
Like all those who revered him, I've been suffused with thoughts about Bill Buckley since the news of his death came. I've spent the time since reading about him, discussing him, writing about him. I listened to his beloved Bach during my workout yesterday morning. I'll never forget years ago how delighted I was to find that the music I'd always thought of as the theme to Firing Line was actually the third movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. I didn't have the Brandenburgs on my iPod so I listened to some of Bach's Violin Concertos. As the sweat poured off me and the joy, the beauty, and the fun that is Bach poured forth, I had an epiphany: Of course! Of course Bill Buckley loved Bach! Bach was not just the theme music to WFB's television show, it was the theme music to his life. I've suggested in this space before that everything Bach did, secular music included, was an offering up to God. Just so with Bill Buckley. Chris Matthews also commented on this in a very moving tribute to him here; watch the whole thing through to the end to get to the part of which I speak - Laborare est orare. There was a pure spiritual joy about the man that came though in everything he did. His life's work, like Bach's, was his offering up to God.
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