Johanna Speaks

Today I am going to be talking about Johann Sebastian Bach. Johann is a famous composer. He composed lots of classical music. For one thing, I didn't know his first name was Johann! You say it like this ( yo..han). If you add an (a) to it, it's my name! Johanna. 

Here are some facts about Johann Sebastion Bach:

Johann was born in Eisenach, Germany, on March 21, 1685. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the director of the town musicians, and his family included teachers, composers, church organists, and court musicians. After his parent's death, the 10-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at St Michael's church in Ohrdruf. Johann Christoph instructed him on the Clavichord and exposed him to the works of great composers of the time. 

Bach was very skillful and talented and would explore different harmonies and foreign styles in his works. He believed that " The aim and end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." 

Bach married twice and had twenty children, four of which followed in his footsteps and went on to have a musical career, honoring the family tradition. 

Also, in 1717 he challenged harpsichordist Louis Marchand to a keyboard duel. Marchand accepted but quickly realized he would suffer a humiliating defeat and opted not to show up on the contest day. 

Here is some music he composed:

I got a binder that I can put my music in! I got it from Mrs.Orr! Mrs.Orr is a lady who plays piano at our church. She is a super good pianist! And she sings while she is playing the piano. She even helped out as a singing director a long time ago for a choir! Anyways, she just returned from going on a vacation with her husband, and they have been gone for a month. In the meantime, I have been playing violin for the church while Abbygail ( the one who usually plays violin) plays the piano. She is a really good piano player and violin player. And Nick is playing guitar. So when Mr. and Mrs.Orr came back, Abbygail went back to the violin. And now Abbygail and I will be playing violin together for church. We did play some songs for bible study last night on Tuesday. That went great, but I got confused with the music, and there was a three-padge song! So I couldn't put all the pages on one music stand fast, but Abbygail could, though! 

And Mrs.Orr saw that I was struggling to put the music on the music stand fast enough that she gave me a binder so I could put all the songs in and flip the page to go to a different song fast. I said, "Thank you so much! This will be super helpful!".

I am super happy that I got to have a binder! I printed out a music drawing and slipped it on the front of the binder. It now looks really cool! 

Here are pictures of the binder:

We went to Chester for a church service during the week of July. It was a prayer service for the nation of the United States of America that copied what George Washington would have followed in prayer in an Anglican church during his time. It also had extra choral music from songs of that time. And so we went to the place on July fourth. 

Here is the church service link:

https://fb.watch/lE2aQrHZtP/

I made a cake that has the American flag on it, and we are going to be eating it this Friday because Fridays are the days we usually go with our friends to the lake club and have dinner. So I will be bringing it to the lake club Friday. It represents the Fourth of July. I am also hopefully going to be making another cake for fireworks at the lake club that we are also going to be going to. But that is next week, so I will wait a few days before making that cake. 

The cake is a spice cake. And I used cream cheese frosting! I LOVE cream cheese frosting because it just tastes soo good!! The funny thing is that I don't like cream cheese, but it does taste so good for frosting!! Regular butter frosting tastes too sweet for me. Cream cheese frosting is very sweet, but it is a lot better than regular frosting, in my opinion. So I used cream cheese frosting. I died it red, white, and blue and just piped it on! Oh, I forgot to say that for the cake I died it red, white and blue also but I didn't die one layer red and another layer white and the other layer blue. I died one layer of red, white, and blue. So it has a cool design in the middle! I have done it before with other colors, and it turned out great! So hopefully, it will look cool on the inside again for this cake. Here is a picture of the cake:

I will post another picture when we cut into it Friday so you can see the design in the cake. 

I built a new habitat for my tortoise, Joy! She loves it! I have kept her in there for most of the day every day. I take her in at night just in case an animal comes. I built it in my mom's garden area. It is an enclosed area. But I am still scared that an animal might climb over the fence and try to get the tortoise. I built it out of wood with some nails and just put it together. So far, the tortoise hasn't got out yet. It's a pretty big place. There are several spots for the tortoise to sleep. A rocky area, a bush area, and its little house also to sleep under. I have a big water area also. So it can take a bath or drink water. And I have a food bowl for it so it can eat. I feed it salad and some bell peppers or whatever I have. It can take walks around the area or sleep. It usually sleeps, though, all the time. It's so cute! 

I have a picture and a video to show you! Here they are: