Sweet Harmony

Bach greatly admired the music of his forebears and was often criticized for his traditionalist approach to composition. Nevertheless, we find in Bach’s music many works that were forward-looking and innovative, favoring the Rococo and galant styles that were taking hold throughout Europe. The Missa in A Major is a curious amalgam of the traditional and contemporary, featuring a pair of a relatively “new” instrument on the scene, the flauto traverso. The Pythagorean theory of Harmonia Mundi, built on the premise that music was a central force in the creation of Earth, is given rapturous credence in Handel’s setting of the Ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day, an exquisite Restoration period verse by John Dryden, England’s first Poet Laureate.