"God, it's nothing but sixteenth-notes!"

So said I, the first time my piano teacher ever had me look at a piece by Bach. Lynn Sislo is amazed that someone blows Bach off.

The problem that Bach presents to the contemporary ear is twofold. First, listeners today generally are not able to process counterpoint to the degree to which Bach uses it. We're not talking about just the two-part inventions here; Bach wrote very long fugues for many voices, and contrapuntal listening is about the most demanding kind of music listening there is. We are much more typically expected to follow a single melody and its various harmonies, but that's about it. When even symphonic development like you might find in a Beethoven symphony is demanding to us, it's no surprise that a full-scale Bach fugue is extremely hard to dig into.

Second, there is the idea of emotion in music. I obviously can't speak for most listeners, but in my experience many people are more equipped to discuss a musical work's emotional fabric, in terms of contrasts and beauty and whatnot, even to the extent of saying things like "This piece makes me think of a stream in the woods" or some such thing. This kind of thing is just not to be found in Bach. It's not what Bach was about. Music-as-feeling was alien to him; music-as-devotion was Bach's stock in trade. Or, put another way, music as ritual. The idea of expressing himself through his music likely did not even occur to Bach, unless it was to express his own deep religious faith.

Listening to Bach requires almost an entirely different mindset than, say, listening to Schumann or Ravel. (And in all honesty, it's a mindset that I've never really spent much time developing. There's something about Bach that I'm not sure I can ever really get, no matter how much I might enjoy the Brandenburg Concertos and how amazing I find the unaccompanied cello suites.)

BTW, for anyone wondering about how to approach Bach, I highly recommend the chapter Leonard Bernstein devotes to him in his wonderful book The Joy of Music. I'm pretty sure the book is out of print right now, but any library that doesn't stink should have it.