This week we are learning about Johann Sebastian Bach after last week focusing on George Frideric Handel and his music. They both are from the same country and both born in the same year, becoming two of the greatest musicians of their time and creating music that was similar in some ways although different in others. They both set pieces of music to the Bible although Bach was a more religious man and had more Biblical pieces than Handel. Bach worked as a church musician in a Lutheran context, Bach was at time questioned by others as to whether or not he was truly a religious man or was he just trying provide for his family. One of the videos we watched explored this topic by looking at Bach’s own Bible in Luther’s translation. In the video you can see that Bach wrote notes in the Bible and made comments on certain things such as he noticed that some verses were missing and that leads some to believe that he was truly a religious man because he knew the verses were missing, he also made comments about music in certain places of the Bible and how it connected with worship towards God. These comments make it seem as though Bach wasn’t just writing music for the church in order to only support his family but to serve God and please him and for his own religious reasons. Where as if you look at Handel his main focus in creating music was for entertainment purposes and to make money, not so much his own personal religious reasons. While Handel did create some outstanding pieces that were set to Biblical text, such as, The Messiah, his main focus was on creating pieces that would captivate audiences and bring in money and at times you have to create music based on your audience not necessarily maybe your own personal preference such as Bach was. Bach also was very popular for his “Passion Play” which focusing on suffering more importantly on Jesus’s suffering. Bach’s passions would have been another way for Bach to continue creating music that would benefit the church and be used to teach the Bible and about Jesus’s suffering to maybe those who weren’t religious at the time but enjoyed Bach’s music. It’s interesting today to see many of his works that were meant for worship in the church, being played in concert halls for entertainment, while also still be played in church settings as well, kind of bringing more similarity today between Bach and Handel as there music still lives on and is enjoyed by many.