One only, please. And why.
I don't think any one has gotten to the end yet :)
Quote from: Mozart on July 06, 2007, 08:28:49 AM
I don't think any one has gotten to the end yet :)
;D ;D ;D
Kyrie
I think the whole is rather more than the sum of the parts. But I would probably choose the Crucifixus. It's wonderful music in itself - economical and reserved but gripping and deeply moving. And it fits perfectly into the overall structure of the work, even though of course it's lifted and only slightly modified from "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen..." But I guess that's one of the big achievements of the work, knitting these fragments together so convincingly.
Quote from: Mozart on July 06, 2007, 08:28:49 AM
I don't think any one has gotten to the end yet :)
Speak for yourself, sweetie.
The whole piece is equally great to me...it's like asking people what is the best motif in Beethoven's 9th...an impossible task :-X
Mine is the Cum Sancto Spiritu. I find this piece one of the best allegros I've ever heard anywhere. It starts with moderate emotion and builds relentlessly with supreme contrapuntal skill to one of the most triumphant climaxes ever written. As a matter of fact, I blush just slightly at this, to me it is the best musical evocation anywhere of the sex act. Just before the climax, there is slight retreat, and then it builds again, climaxing with a figure including two triplets in the high trumpet that perfectly mimics sexual climax. We all know that music sometimes expresses sexuality, as does all art sometimes, and we also know that Bach must have been well acquainted with the deed, to father 23 children. So this connection I am suggesting has some possible basis in reality, though the Good Cantor would not have approved of it and though it would have been subconscious. Nonetheless....
Take a listen and see what I mean, especially at the end.
This is a tough one, given that most of the movements are superb. But I'll have to go with "Et in terra pax", the second chorus of the Gloria. It has just about everything: power, tenderness, drama, tension, climax, inevitability, spiritual enlightenment and some super melodies.
Perhaps the Credo, because of its deep emotion (but, after all I could say the same regarding the Agnus Dei).
Sanctus