Toccata And Fugue Gcse Essay

From the baroque time period, I chose to listen to “Toccata and Fugue” by J. S. Bach (1685-1750). The only instrument used in this piece was an organ. In the first movement, Toccata, the sound was dark, reminding me of Dracula. This movement made me feel very anxious due to its fast pace and how loud and intense the organ was. The second movement, Fugue, gave me very mixed emotions. The beginning of this movement reminds me of bees, the way the tune darts back and forth. Around the fourth minute of the song during Fugue, the sound gets lighter and sounds more feminine to me. That particular part of the song made me picture ballerinas in my mind and I could see it being played at a ballet. As the song progresses, it gets darker, like in Toccata, and makes me feel like a battle of some sort is going on.

For the classical period, I chose “Symphony No. 8 ‘Le Soir’” by Joseph Haydn, who lived from 1732 to 1809. In this piece, I heard the violin, the cello, the bass, the clarinet, the flute, the piano, and the French horn. The first movement, Allegro Molto, had a pretty sound that made me feel happy. The flutes sounded like butterflies fluttering and the tune reminded me of princess movies like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty because of the light feeling the violins gave. The second movement, called Andante, flowed very well at the beginning and reminded me of a river, the way all of the instruments came together. In this movement, the notes the flutes were playing reminded me of birds. When the French horns had a mini solo, it made me feel powerful, like when they present royalty, like a king, in a movie. The end of this movement I felt the way