A definition or a description of “soul” is impossible, but the attempts of our poets and composers seem more successful than those of our scientists and philosophers. When even the best words fail, music sometimes carries us further.

Better yet, when words fall into alliance with the music of Bach or Franz Schubert, wonder comes, clarity comes, and, at least for a moment, we are given a view of a higher world that we instinctively know has something to do with what we call our soul.

This mysterious being seems to have an urgent desire to celebrate its creator: “My soul praises and extols God’s grace,” Bach wrote.

The beautiful, lyrical contours of the melody join the sure and steady steps of the rhythm, as if someone were walking with an uplifted heart; words and musical phrases are repeated, often echoed by a violin, a flute, or an oboe. These are the happy recurring thoughts of a life built on faith.

The soul is described by the venerable poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his “Song of the Spirits over the Waters”:

The soul of man,
Is like water.
From heaven it comes,
To heaven ascends,
And, returning again
To earth,
It is ever changing.

Goethe’s poem was set to music by Schubert in a work that deepens one’s impression of Goethe’s words. Rain, seas, and rivers reveal themselves in the rich sounds of the lower strings. A chorus of men, the spirits over the water, hover above the strings and sing their song.