Music as Clay :: Composers Musical Essays

Music as ClayIn our study of live, we have seen how he was able to take traditional, sacred schoolbooks and hold open accompaniments for them that capture the meaning of those texts in a very unique way. bach had the power to write music that was so expressive that it could actually shit the listener feel what the text was saying. This power of bachelors music is often unmarked in our society, because the modern human culture it quick to judge the steady of music. By doing this, we fail to hear the truths Bach wrote. The following is a wet study of how Bach was able to combine text and harmonies in angiotensin converting enzyme specific movement of his Cantata No. 78 to express sealed messages.Bachs tenor aria (movement 4) in Cantata No. 78 is a effective example of how Bach uses the expressive power of text, harmonies, and instrumentation to speak to his audiences and in reality say things through his music. This way, he was able to make music non only more powerful, bu t more accessible.One way Bach uses Movement 4 to speak to the audience is through the form and bracing structure of the piece. Movement 4 is a binary aria with the text adhere evenly into a three-line A section and a three-line B section. The col ritornello is in g baby bird, and the piece stays in g minor until the experience cadence of the A section. The second ritornello is in Bb major followed by the B section, which moves from Bb major through many other keys and eventually ends up back in g minor. Then the final ritornello is also vie in g minor. The form Bach has chosen seems, from the conventions mentioned by Crist, to be an irregular form for the text given. It is a very short text that could easily be repeated in the da capo form, but Bach must have chosen this form for another reason. Perhaps he was trying to accentuate more on the meaning of the words sooner than portray its poetic sound. The actual meaning of the words do not really seem to fit well with a da cap o form. The starting signal three lines talk of how Jesus makes the heart light and the spirit free. Thus, a freer style makes sense. Also, the last three lines talk of how Jesus brings victory everyplace the Lord of Hell, so ending the song after that last line can somehow be paralleled to the victory.