# Bach’s St. John Passion vs Haydn’s The Creation



## RogerWaters (Feb 13, 2017)

Major vocal works from each of the Baroque and Classical periods. Bach, mystical and emotional, Haydn, stately, but arguably with a move towards Romanticism. Which do you prefer?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bach easily. The two Haydn works in this genre never really appealed to me.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

I think the Creation could end about 30 minutes earlier than it does. Basically, Part III is pretty much redundant (for which a clue is given in the words at the end of Part II: Vollendet ist das große Werk... The glorious work is *completed*). He should have put his pen down at that point, but instead we get half an hour of Adam and Eve having a tedious love-in!

Bach would never have allowed himself to be so redundantly superfluous!


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

I love both, but my default preference unswervingly goes to Bach. If I were to choose one work to convince a Bach skeptic that he is the opposite of the stuffy, old-fashioned, academic that he is stereotyped as, the St. John would be it. That opening chorus is like sending an electrical jolt through your veins!


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Tough-- but I prefer The Creation overall. It is one of the quintessential Classical Period works along with Haydn's Op 77 and Mozart's Gran Partita, IMO.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

The St. John Passion is not one of my favorite Bach sacred choral works; The Creation is my favorite Haydn choral work. I voted for Bach.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'll pipe in for the Creation. The St. John is great and all that, but the Creation is less of a downer.


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