It is for me the most perfect piece of music in the Western canon. It’s Bach’s “Prelude 1.” I listened to it while writing this piece about my father, me, and Bach:

Isn’t Prelude 1 the most perfect piece of music ever composed? So clear, simple, lyrical. The music almost plays itself. It’s as natural as a stream.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...