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Baroque Compositions Composed By Johann Sebastian Bach

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The two Baroque compositions I sampled were the St Mathew Passion, and the St John Passion both composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. The first piece composed by the legend Bach during his stay in Leipzig, Germany at around 1923 was the St John Passion. The piece was later performed in the Easters of 1724-25, 32 and 49. The piece was mainly made up of parts of the Gospel of John, hence the name St John Passion. St Matthew Passion on the other hand similarly contained content from the Gospel of Matthew and was performed in the Good Fridays of 1727 and 29 and again 1736 and 1742 but after a few revisions (Sayre, 2013).
When I heard this music for the first time, specifically a composition by Bach, I felt a spiritual feeling about the music. The composition to me had a progressing melody, which ascended to a point where it in some instances climaxed and then stopped suddenly or in other cases suddenly came to a halt at its peak. The melody then resumed with a different rhythm and arrangement but the feeling of ascending was still present. The arrangement of the composition gave me a feeling like the song was taking me on a journey and an adventurous one at that. The journey felt adventurous to me mainly because of the ascending nature of the melody. …show more content…

Despite the name, dance suites were meant for listening as opposed to being meant for dancers. The dance suites consisted of an “overture”, which was a slow movement, a moderate tempo known as the “Allemande.” A “Courante” which was very lively, the “Sarabande”, which was the slowest part of the composition and the “Gigue”, which is upbeat and lively and easily recognizable from its stand-out rhythm (Carter, 2011). Experts are of the opinion that “Baroque music expresses an order, the fundamental order of the universe. It is always lively and tuneful.” The music, according to experts, has a somber feel to it, especially the passions of Bach (Sayre,

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