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#Mass in b minor bach full#
Immediately we are set upon by the full baroque orchestra, trumpets, strings, timpani, and woodwinds in a dance-like celebration. Next, listen to the same text set by JS Bach in his Mass. There are no instruments, rather it is sung in the “chapel style” or “a cappella.” Peter’s church in Rome, and you’ll get a sense of the awesomeness of the sound. The tone of the work is gentle, calm, and radiant, encouraging reflection, and contemplation of the beauty of the sounds for their own sake. Notice how Palestrina’s setting has a clear, transparent texture? Each line’s entrance moves step-wise, that is, there are few large leaps from one note to the next, mostly syllabic style, that is, generally one note per syllable, and the parts have no aggressive rhythms or dynamics. Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth we praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you… Listen in particular, say, to the Gloria movement, a setting of the text: In order to understand this difference, I would suggest listening first to one of Palestrina’s settings, the graceful and radiant Pope Marcellus Mass, written at the end of the 16th century Italian renaissance. Bach sets the text of the mass to music in quite a different way than his renaissance predecessors. I would like to offer one piece of his for our consideration: his Mass in B minor. While Handel was composing works in England and enjoying a cosmopolitan career, Bach seemed to be concerned with his local church, his 22 children, and his composing and playing, unconcerned about being known internationally. Unlike his contemporary GF Handel, Bach was a “homebody” in that he seldom traveled far from his workplaces. It seemed he could play anything, and improvise whenever called upon. His widow even found manuscripts being used after his death to wrap fish at the local market.Įven with numerous compositions, he was best known in his lifetime for his virtuoso organ playing. Unfortunately, many of his works have been lost over the years. He wrote an incredibly large body of compositions that covered all the forms, instruments, and styles of his day, including cantatas, oratorios, passions, masses, and chorales for the church orchestral concertos and suites, concertos, keyboard works for clavier, harpsichord, and organ and solo and chamber works for all sorts of various instruments. Bach was born in 1685 into a quite renowned musical family, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that he spent his 65 years as an organist, choir director, and composer, nor that several of his children became fine musicians themselves. Music Bach, Mass in B Minor (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, cond.