Analyzing a Chorale by J.S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685—1750) was one of the great musical geniuses of all time. Among his many, more complex, musical compositions are a setting of chorale tunes, 371 of them in all. They are all little musical gems.
Some of these are more complex than others. Here is a very straightward setting of the chorale tune "A Might Fortress is our God," from a melody by Martin Luther. We analyzed this in class the other day. Notice the root position chords, the chordal inversions and the uses of secondary dominant chords.
The one thing the Bach does that might confuse you is that is the chords that we call the V7/IV (the C major triad with the flat seven) "should" go to IV, the F chord, but in fact does not do so. This is a little complicated, but essentially the tension set up by the V7/IV is resolved in a different way by moving to yet another secondary dominant. What can I say, composition is never as cut and dried as the theorists try to make it out to be. Do notice that the other secondary dominants resolve properly, with the F# of the V7/V rising to the V chord, and the G# of the V7/vi rising to the vi chord.
Listen to this chorale while you review the analysis. I will be asking you to replicate this chorale analysis on your final exam of the year.
