with good things, but the rich he has sent away empty”, he had a clever idea. To depict the word inanes (empty), he has the flutes abruptly stop playing and leaves but one note in the continuo to fill up the emptiness of the last bar of music! Surely he could not resist a smile as he added this touch to his masterpiece. As a sincere Lutheran, Bach was a devoted reader of the Bible and other religious volumes. His personal library contained 83 books, inventoried at his death. All of them explored