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    Singet Dem Herrn

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    oetsoegloe
    This document provides an analysis of Johann Sebastian Bach's musical composition "Singet Dem Herrn" based on Psalm 149. It summarizes that the composition is a setting of 3 verses from the Psalm for 8 vocal parts in a polyphonic texture. It explores how Bach musically depicted the text through an upbeat 6/8 tempo, dance-like character, and complex counterpoint between vocal parts. The analysis notes the Baroque-era characteristics in the dynamics, texture that ensures continuity, and singers' incisive yet light delivery. It concludes by praising how Bach was able to maintain energetic praise for God throughout the composition through his rhythmic, melodic, and textural techniques.

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    Singet Dem Herrn

    Uploaded by

    oetsoegloe
    246 views3 pages
    This document provides an analysis of Johann Sebastian Bach's musical composition "Singet Dem Herrn" based on Psalm 149. It summarizes that the composition is a setting of 3 verses from the Psalm for 8 vocal parts in a polyphonic texture. It explores how Bach musically depicted the text through an upbeat 6/8 tempo, dance-like character, and complex counterpoint between vocal parts. The analysis notes the Baroque-era characteristics in the dynamics, texture that ensures continuity, and singers' incisive yet light delivery. It concludes by praising how Bach was able to maintain energetic praise for God throughout the composition through his rhythmic, melodic, and textural techniques.

    Original Description:

    Listening and analysis project on Music Theory 2. Bob Jones Memorial Bible College

    Original Title

    singet dem herrn

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    This document provides an analysis of Johann Sebastian Bach's musical composition "Singet Dem Herrn" based on Psalm 149. It summarizes that the composition is a setting of 3 verses from the Psalm for 8 vocal parts in a polyphonic texture. It explores how Bach musically depicted the text through an upbeat 6/8 tempo, dance-like character, and complex counterpoint between vocal parts. The analysis notes the Baroque-era characteristics in the dynamics, texture that ensures continuity, and singers' incisive yet light delivery. It concludes by praising how Bach was able to maintain energetic praise for God throughout the composition through his rhythmic, melodic, and textural techniques.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    246 views3 pages

    Singet Dem Herrn

    Uploaded by

    oetsoegloe
    This document provides an analysis of Johann Sebastian Bach's musical composition "Singet Dem Herrn" based on Psalm 149. It summarizes that the composition is a setting of 3 verses from the Psalm for 8 vocal parts in a polyphonic texture. It explores how Bach musically depicted the text through an upbeat 6/8 tempo, dance-like character, and complex counterpoint between vocal parts. The analysis notes the Baroque-era characteristics in the dynamics, texture that ensures continuity, and singers' incisive yet light delivery. It concludes by praising how Bach was able to maintain energetic praise for God throughout the composition through his rhythmic, melodic, and textural techniques.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Joneline T.

    Eugenio
    Music Theory 2

    “Singet Dem Herrn”

    Psalm 149
    Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his
    praise in the congregation of saints.
    Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion
    be joyful in their King.
    Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises
    unto him with the timbrel and harp.

    This is the text of the German hymn composition by Johann Sebastian Bach.
    It’sfascinating how 3 verses of this Psalm can result into this wonderful polyphony.
    Bach really made the song characteristic of the text of the verse especially in verse
    3 where it says: “Let them praise His name in the dance…”. The tempo of the
    song is dance-like, with 6/8 as its meter. It is constantly moving and never losing
    its energy.

    The dynamics is generally mezzo-forte to fortissimo. There are few soft


    spots but not too soft. Very much characteristic of the era from where this is
    written: Baroque. The dynamics of the voice is often likened unto the instruments
    of that time – harpsichords, violins, violoncello – which has no sustaining capacity.
    This is also the reason why the texture of this piece is polyphonic. When there is a
    rest in the upper 4 parts, there’s movement on the lower 4 parts and vice-versa.
    This ensures a continuous movement especially along the melody line. Since the
    timbre of this piece is mostly voice, continuity and smooth transitions are really
    important. It makes the texture thicker and chunky. The main challenge of both
    the singers and the accompanists is the contrapuntal complexity – bringing out the
    main line and keeping the rest of the texture present but clear. But they overcame
    that challenge and were able to execute the song smoothly.

    The timbre is mostly voice composed of 8 parts; 2 for every voice range. But
    there are also other kinds of timbre which can be heard but very faint – one seems
    to be a string ensemble and an organ. They are there, I think, primarily, just to
    support the choir. It seems that Bach wanted the choir to be more distinguished
    rather than the instruments. The singers were also able to sing lightly and
    incisively at the same time, which is also reminiscent of the Baroque era.

    The melody is quite complicated because of the rhythm structure which is


    generally composed of eighths and sixteenths. The highest note is G2 and the
    lowest is f. There is also a lot of melisma – actually, almost all of it ismelismatic in
    nature. The challenging rhythmic structure also requires textual clarity on the part
    of the singers and dead-on precision when it comes to the cues and attacks.

    I also noticed that there are a lot of accented notes, especially in the bass.
    There are also accents here and there which helps emphasize the word and at the
    same time, sounds like a percussion when they come all together.

    On the last part of the piece, that’s when Bach let himself go. It almost went
    “crazy” because of the alternate uttering of the word “Singet”, almost every other
    beat. The dynamic levels went up and everyone has their own melody that when
    you look at it as a big piece, you can almost see the intertwining of parts
    altogether – like thin ropes spun together to create a bigger, stronger and more
    complex rope. If you listen carefully, each of the melody can really stand alone.
    And then slowly the melody melds them all together for the final cadence in the
    end. Notice how Bach went from 8-parts of independent melody to a clear unifying
    chord at the last cadence. Amidst that entire ruckus, the chords eventually lead
    to a clean perfect authentic cadence.

    Bach, through his complicated rhythms, challenging melody and upbeat


    tempo, was able to keep the energy of the song from the moment it started until it
    finished. He was able to bring out and draw a concrete picture of how should we
    praise God and be joyful in His presence through music.

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