The final movement of Bach‘s St. Matthew Passion is a tearful lullaby to Jesus: “rest sweetly, good night!” There is a figure that Bach uses over and over again to emulate the sound of sobbing – you can hear it clearly at 2:26, but it is found throughout the piece.

But the best part of this piece is the 7-8 suspension that happens at every important cadence!

if you have no idea what that means, let me explain:

A cadence is a stopping point. A suspension is when you expect a certain note at a certain time, but the composer delays that certain note to intensify the feeling of resolve that you get when you finally hear said note.

So, at 4:48, we expect to hear:
sol fa me re DO

but instead we hear:
sol fa me re TI DO

And that TI, it hurts, but it hurts so good.

This version is very tastefully done. If I ever get to conduct this piece, I assure you I will make that suspension as tasteless as possible.