March 29, 1985

The vast edifice of Western music was built on the calendar of Christian observance, whose climax is now at hand. The images of Holy Week - Christ's triumphal entry, the shouting crowds, the weeping mother, the trial and Crucifixion - have for centuries resonated in the minds of composers. This weekend, and over the coming week, they will resonate through New York's churches and concert halls with the vibrancy that only a great musical city can offer. Holy Week has inspired music of the utmost seriousness and depth, and of all this music, Johann Sebastian Bach's great Passion settings stand as monuments. They are at once unique and supremely typical, landmarks in both musical and religious traditions and unmatched expressions of an individual genius. For concentrated greatness of musical and devotional utterance, there is nothing like them, and Carnegie Hall will be presenting both the ''St. John Passion'' and the ''St. Matthew Passion,'' along with the B-minor Mass that many consider the greatest of all Bach's works. This ''Choral Celebration'' promises to mark the highlight of the city's Easter music this year.

''They call it the 'code of silence' or 'the blue wall of conspiracy,' '' John Guido, the Police Department's Chief of Inspectional Services, said. ''There's a natural affinity of cops to stick with one another. But I don't see that as different from any other profession. Hey, it's not the American way to be a rat.'' ''It's a major problem wherever unions are involved and because of the closeness of the uniformed services,'' said Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward. ''It's less of a problem today than it was 15 years ago,'' he said, however, before the Knapp Commission's investigation of police corruption. The investigation into the hit-and-run death of a Manhattan pedestrian, who was struck by a police patrol car earlier this month, has revived debate over the accountability of police officers and the degree to which they protect colleagues suspected of wrongdoing. The accident March 15 on the Upper East Side outraged the public and most police officers, too.

The ferryboat glides into her dock at Governors Island as easily as an ice skater turning on a pond, but on her short trip through New York Harbor, she travels from one world to another. Five hundred yards from the concrete and glass southern tip of Manhattan and its towering skyline and bustling streets, there is a secluded preserve of green landscapes, trees about to bud, a campus framed by red brick buildings, and passers-by saluting one another. A military service is the occupying power on this tranquil strand of land surrounded by water. Governors Island, within sight of the Statue of Liberty, is given over entirely to the Coast Guard.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today that the United States was ready to meet the Soviet Union halfway in finding ''a mutually acceptable approach'' to the arms issues under negotiation in Geneva. In his first speech on arms control since the Geneva talks resumed two weeks ago, Mr. Shultz said that the United States would be flexible in the negotiations and prepared for ''trade- offs'' in reducing strategic nuclear missiles and bombers. But he offered no change in the Administration's determination to proceed with research into strategic defenses despite Soviet insistence that there can be no progress in nuclear arms reduction until curbs in the defensive program are agreed upon. Gorbachev Accuses U.S. Meanwhile, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the new Soviet leader, said in a letter to a group of West Germans that American statements on the Geneva talks ''cannot but put one on guard.''

It's in the nature of New Yorkers to want to see things first, and then brag a little. And it's in the nature of the New Directors/New Films series to satisfy that urge. For 14 springs, this movie festival has been a rite of discovery of fresh talent: among those who made their debuts in New Directors are Steven Spielberg, John Sayles, Wim Wenders, Wayne Wang and Nestor Almendros. This year, all but one of the film makers are new to the series. Their works, never shown before in New York and chosen by the staffs of the sponsoring Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art's film department, begin screening tonight. Each movie will be shown twice. New Directors/New Films runs through April 14, at the Modern's Roy and Niuta Titus theaters at 11 West 53d Street.