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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… Continue reading J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel

I find it very interesting how different reactions you can get from using the Bible as a form of entertainment. When it is a positive portrayal it seems most Christians are alright or even endorse it. However, when it is a negative or even neutral portrayal, there seems to be a very strong reaction from… Continue reading The Bible as Entertainment

Personally, I have a fair amount of experience writing my own music and working with various online softwares.  For my senior project in high school, I decided to write and record my own five song EP of sorts.  Though I cannot say I thoroughly enjoy all of the music I created during that period, the… Continue reading Musescore

I had never really thought of the music from the Baroque Period to be overly ornate before. It had always simply been how I understood “classical” music. Until actually understanding baroque to mean overly ornate and extremely detailed, I had never noticed this side of the music from this period before. However, now that I… Continue reading The Ornateness of the Baroque Period

In class, the other day Dr McGrath talked about how Handel’s Messiah had different word inflections and dynamics depending on what the lyrics were. However, this technique is not unique to Handel. Many songwriters across the years have used this technique to match their lyrics. The opera Aida uses this technique in its lyrics. One… Continue reading Song Inflection

In class, we talked about different text and music through Isaiah. Also with the topic of Handel Messiah. We started class with Messiah being Hebrew. Christ being Greek They Both come together and mean the same word. This word being anointed or the anointed one. Being anointed means having oil or a liquid speared on… Continue reading The Handel’s Messiah

In class today we touched on the meaning of the word “Messiah”. This lead to a conversation about other impactful and significant words within the Bible. Words like Hallelujah and Amen have a significant meaning in the Bible and when they are used, they are used whole-heartedly. For a brief moment, we asked ourselves if… Continue reading Modern “Amen”

Today in class, we discussed three different examples of music with lyrics that paint a picture of the words they are singing in the song. All three of these examples are directly from Handel’s Messiah. The music and symphony behind these lyrics is what makes the picture painted so vivid in our minds. These examples… Continue reading Painting a Picture

I love the Hallelujah Chorus. It is something I look forward to every time my church’s choir does their rendition of it. The music is amazing and gives a truly great message and moves me to reverence every time. Handel does a great job in this section of really diving into the words and connecting… Continue reading Handel’s Messiah

We talked about Jesus as the Messiah and what that means. The Hebrew word Messiah means anointed or the anointed one. We looked at some texts that talk about Jesus as Messiah, including the book of Isaiah. The text is envisioning a heavenly realm and a time when the kingdoms of this world come under… Continue reading The Messiah