The piece I will reanalyze is the Prelude from Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G major, which was the most representative pieces of baroque music, and it was played with cello as the solo instrument. This prelude is recognized as one of the best-known movement from the entire suites, and it is widely adopted into many modern films and commercials, for example, movies like How Not to Disappear Completely, Irrational Man, and TV series like Parenthood all cited the prelude as their soundtracks (Johann, n.d.). With the familiarity and the knowledge acquired through this semester, I will appreciate this brilliant piece of music in terms of four aspects, that are the instrument, background, composer, and the musical techniques.
First, instrument. Like what have been mentioned above, this Prelude is played entirely and solely with cello. As one of the members of the string family, cello has its unique pitch tuned in one of the four most consonant intervals – the perfect fifth. Its pitch is an octave lower than viola while marked as the second lowest instrument among the string family. If we describe violin as a hopeful and energetic teenager, then cello sounds more of an elegant woman. It is said that cello technique was not mature during the beginning of
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The suite is defined as a collection of movements that are put together by presenting in the same key (Suite, 2017). Suite is basically consisted of Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue. However, Baroque suite sometimes has an additional element called Prelude, which is quite common in Bach’s works. Prelude is added serving as the introduction that gives a hint about the following theme. In this case, with the sonorous and cantabile sounds of cello, the resonant Prelude from Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G major helps create a peaceful and uplifting tonal environment. By listening to the Prelude, I can’t help but begin to imagine people dressing elaborately, standing in the middle of the court, ready to