Odin

Johan is an Indian name for boys meaning The Lord is Gracious.

Johann is the German form of John. The name John does appear in the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) as one of King David’s mighty men. However, John owes most of his enduring popularity and widespread usage to two prominent New Testament figures: John the Baptist and John the Apostle.

Johann, typically a male given name, is the Germanized form of the originally Hebrew language name יוחנן (Yohanan) (meaning “God is merciful”). It is a form of the Germanic and Latin given name “Johannes.” The English language form is John.

Johann is simply a shorter version of the more complete name Johannes.

Although Bach did not write any operas, he was not averse to the genre or its ornamented vocal style. In church music, Italian composers had imitated the operatic vocal style in genres such as the Neapolitan mass.

While a piano uses hammers (like its forerunner, the dulcimer, shown below) and dampers to strike the strings within to make beautiful music, a harpsichord performs very differently. Music made by pianos, quite simply, can be heard in a large concert hall while the music of the harpsichord does not carry as freely.

seven octaves

The harpsichord is a keyboard instrument in which the strings are plucked, rather than hit with a hammer (which is the mechanism for the piano, a more recent development). The distinctive sound of the harpsichord creates an almost immediately association with the baroque era.

The 18th-century French harpsichord is greatly admired and has been widely adopted as a model for the construction of modern instruments. A striking aspect of the 18th-century French tradition was its near-obsession with the Ruckers harpsichords.

flutes