The Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book") BWV 599-644 is
a collection of 46 chorale preludes for organ written
by Johann Sebastian Bach. All but three of them were
composed during the period 1708–1717, while Bach was
court organist at the ducal court in Weimar. The
remaining three, along with a short two-bar fragment,
were added in 1726 or later, after Bach's appointment
as cantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig.
The collection was originally planned as a set of 164
chorale preludes spa...(+)
The Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book") BWV 599-644 is
a collection of 46 chorale preludes for organ written
by Johann Sebastian Bach. All but three of them were
composed during the period 1708–1717, while Bach was
court organist at the ducal court in Weimar. The
remaining three, along with a short two-bar fragment,
were added in 1726 or later, after Bach's appointment
as cantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig.
The collection was originally planned as a set of 164
chorale preludes spanning the whole liturgical year.
The chorale preludes form the first of Bach's
masterpieces for organ with a mature compositional
style in marked contrast to his previous compositions
for the instrument. Although each of them takes a known
Lutheran chorale and adds a motivic accompaniment, Bach
explored a wide diversity of forms in the
Orgelbüchlein. Many of the chorale preludes are short
and in four parts, requiring only a single keyboard and
pedal, with an unadorned cantus firmus. Others involve
two keyboards and pedal: these include several canons,
four ornamental four-part preludes, with elaborately
decorated chorale lines, and a single chorale prelude
in trio sonata form. The Orgelbüchlein has a four-fold
purpose: it is a collection of organ music for church
services, a treatise on composition, a religious
statement, and an organ-playing manual.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgelb%C3%BCchlein).
In "Christe, du Lamm Gottes" (BWV 619), the
descending-scale motif (over the interval of a sixth,
"most of the time") reveals no motivic or seemingly
other musical connection to the cantus; perhaps its
gentle descent was chosen for some
spiritual/theological connection with the chorale, but
from the coldest, most "analytical" vantage-point, this
seems an eminently study-worthy example of "formulaic",
in the most positive sense of Bach doing what he does
effortlessly, unrolling of "Take a chorale (in canon,
even), take an arbitrary pattern, and fit B to A." As I
have said before, fitting arbitrary motifs and patterns
(see BW 157.1) to given harmonic contexts is perhaps
the most fundamental technical instrument of Baroque
musical architecture.
Source: Bernard Greenberg
(https://musescore.com/user/1831606).
I created this Transcription of the Choral Prelude (BWV
619) "Christe, du Lamm Gottes" (Christ, Lamb of God)
for Pipe Organ.
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