# Hark The Herald Angels Sing and Bach Orchestra Suite No. 4



## MozartEarlySymphonies (Nov 29, 2013)

Is it just me or does Mendelssohn's Hark The Herald Angels Sing sound like the Gavotte from Bach's Fourth Orchestra Suite? Tell me if you think the two pieces sound alike. Here are Youtube videos of both pieces.

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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

A couple of intervals contained in the length of a line is often enough to suggest another line which also has those intervals. I can see where someone might think there is a resemblance, but it is as slight as all those other supposed resemblances which are not actually near enough to qualify as even, say, an in-law by way of marriage third cousin.

So, nope, and it is not just you, but it is 'just you' -- i.e. the more literature you hold bits and pieces of in memory, the more likely you are to find some similarities from one tune or theme to another, without their being an actual connect.

As a footnote, the Mendelssohn tune was not originally written for Christmas, nor did it have anything to do with a Christian message per se, but it was music from a secular cantata commemorating Johann Gutenberg's invention of the printing press!
... in other words, originally, it had about as much a connection with Christmas as the picture of the Palais Garnier opera house staircase in the Youtube Bach link has to do with Bach 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hark!_The_Herald_Angels_Sing


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