Luogo e data di registrazione		Hamm (Germania) - maggio (LP 1) & luglio (LP 2) 1969
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Michael Bernstein
	Prima Edizione LP		Valois - MB 851/852 · Vol. 11/12 - (2 LP's) - durata 43' 44" / 45' 01" - (p) 1969 - Analogico
	"Das Orgelwerke" LP		Telefunken - BC 25106-T/1-2 - (2 LP's) - durata 43' 44" / 45' 01" - (p) 1970 - Analogico
	Note		-

Few works by Bach have been the object of such thorough analysis as the “Dritten Theil der Clavier-Übung” (Third Volume of Keyboard Studies). It is one of the rare collections which Bach had printed during his lifetime. The perfectly etched volume, which endeavours over several pages to reproduce Bach’s bold handwriting style, appeared in 1739 as a “publication by the author”. It had been preceded by volume I containing the six partitas (1723-1731), and volume II with the “Italian Concerto” and the “French Overture” (1735). It was followed as further printed works by the “Goldberg Variations” (1740), also described as “Keyboard Studies”, as well as the “Schüblerschen Chorale” (1746), the “Musical Offering”'(1757), the “Canonic Variations on ‘Vom Himmel hoch’ ” (1747) and the “Art of the Fugue” (1750). Bach did not choose cantatas or instrumental concertos for printed versions, but keyboard and organ music, and these are exclusively works from the Leipzig period. With these works he intended to present himself as an artist to his contemporaries and to posterity. He gave the name “Clavierübung” to these first publications, the term “Clavier” being understood in Bach’s day as all keyboard instruments - regardless of the method of tone production - and thus including the organ as much as the harpsichord and clavichord. During this period, artistically demanding publications in particular adopted a pedagogic role, as “practical studies”, aimed at systematically resolving certain tasks of style and performance technique. The original title of the present collection is: “Third part of the keyboard studies, consisting of various preludes on the catechism and other hymns, for the organ. For the intellectual pleasure of those music-lovers and particularly the connoisseurs of this kind of work”. This is only an incomplete description of the contents, above all it says nothing about its artistic structure and has been the first reason for misconstruction among subsequent generations who lack the feeling for titles of this kind. The collection consists of 9 arrangements of the Lutheran mass: a large-scale and a more simple arrangement for each of the three Kyrie hymns and three for the Gloria hymn; 12 pieces on six  catechism chorales, again each in large-scale and more simple arrangements, and 4 duets in free movement style not bound to a cantus firmus. The entire collection is framed within a prelude and a fugue, and totals 27 pieces. It is not evident from the title that six of them - the four duets and prelude and fugue - are free movements not bound to any liturgical cantus firmus. For this reason it was often not taken seriously and attempts were made at arbitrary interpretations of the works’s sequence. The best known interpretation is that of an “organ mass”, as a cohesive composition of the musical parts of the Lutheran liturgy. But this construction fails on account of both the title and the contents: Why are the Ordinary movements to the Kyrie and Gloria, most important for such an interpretation, not specifically mentioned, but instead merely figure under “other hymns”? On the other hand what is the object of the setting of the deealogue and of the baptismal hymn in such a complete mass? The construction as an “organ mass” is an example of liturgical overinterpretation. It originates from a period in which Bach’s collections of works were at the same time misunderstood as being a cyclic performance sequence. The position is similar with Albert Schweitzer’s interpretation as a composition of the Longer and Shorter Catechism. It is rather a compendium of liturgical organ playing. In it Bach provides text book examples of large and small, free and chorale-bound preludes. The most important movement types, from the two-part to the six-part movement, from the old strictly vocal-polyphonic structure to the modern concertante style, are included. Manfred Tessmer, who published these pieces in the New Bach Edition, refers to the tradition of such compendium-type collections in the French “Livre d’orgue”, with which Bach was well-acquainted, at least as regards that by Nicolas de Grigny (1699). Were the pieces all written for the organ? Many interpreters incline to the view that the duets and some of the manualiter movements were more likely intended for the harpsichord. But according to the context they were initially meant for the organ manual, since they clearly take into consideration its tonal range from C to c3. The fact that they can also be played on the harpsichord or the clavichord is obvious, given the common literature of organ and keyboard music obtaining at that time. The most difficult aspect, however, is forming a judgement on the extent to which the individual pieces are arranged according to some numerical law, and even the degree to which Bach encoded the contents of the chorales in numerical symbols. Anybody who examines the laws of proportion of Bach’s working and formal plans will hardly accept as a coincidence the fact that the total number of pieces, 27, is based on the square root of 3. The concluding fugue has been named the “Trinity Fugue” on account of its three themes. But where is the figure three not observed everywhere in music? - three notes, the third, the triad, three themes, three sections, three parts, three entrances, three-four time, triplets, three bars, third beat in four-four time etc.! And where is this three figure really meant to indicate the Holy Trinity, where are all three persons, where only the third, the Holy Ghost, indicated? We see that precisely such simple figures are wide open to arbitrary interpretation. Whoever wishes to solve the riddle of Bach’s numerical language must first of all arm himself with scepticism, otherwise he will only find what he is looking for. Precisely because the pieces in the third volume of the keyboard studies are particularly open to numerical symbolic interpretation, the listener is also referred to the problems of such constructions and warned against uncritical acceptance of the many widespread interpretations of this kind. The music will reveal itself to him even without these numerical mysteries which have not been solved down to the present day. Prelude and Fugue E-flat major, BWV 552 form the framework of the chorale preludes. The fact that in a complete recording of the whole Keyboard Studies III they should be left in the beginning and concluding position occupied in the printed work is quite natural. However, it should not be construed from this that the entire collection is a cyclic arrangement. They belong together as prelude and fugue and at the same time represent the richest movement pair of this kind in Bach’s organ works. The ostentatious entry of the prelude, a strange blend of toccata, French overture and concerto, arranges three pithy varying themes in eight sections. The fugue is built up in the manner of rhythmic intensification in accordance with the style of the old organ canzone, comprising three sections of different mensurations: C time in double mensuration, 6/4 time 12/8 time. A new theme is inserted in the second and third sections and counterpointed with the first. Stretto and inversions increasingly intensify the movement, the artistic work of which is scarcely perceived. Nine Arrangements on the Kyrie and Gloria, BWV 669-677 Bach provides a large arrangement pedaliter and a small one manualiter for the threepart hymn “Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit” - “Christe, aller Welt Trost” - “Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist”, a transcription of the Middle Ages Kyrie Tropus “Fons bonitatis”. The large arrangement is kept in the old, strictly polyphonic style and, like most of his movements, is scored in the “stile antico” in alla breve time. Its imitation motifs are taken from the first two chorale lines. They are used also in the first piece in inversion, and in the third in stretto by way of straight and contrary motion. The cantus firmus wanders from the discant in the first via the tenor in the second into the pedal bass in the third piece. This intensification process is supported by rhythmic animation from the second piece onwards, and by the organo pleno movement in the third, culminating in the unusually bold chromatic sequence of the last chorale line, to which belongs the text word “eleison”: a highly eloquent expression of the imploring gesture with which the cry for mercy of the three movements is united at the conclusion. In the second, more simple arrangement of the three Kyrie hymns Bach reverts to the style of the chorale fughetta, which he had scarcely used since his youthful works and which now provide examples here of his mature art. The themes of the short fughettas, each taking up only one printed page, are derived from the first chorale line. The chief piece of the three arrangements based on the Gloria hymn “Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr”’ is the middle one in G major, a concertante trio for two pianos and pedal. It could be the beginning movement in one of the trio sonatas, but it develops a complete cantus firmus, the third and fourth lines even as a canon, without in this way holding up the spirit-stirring, jubilating motion of the movement. The preceding smaller arrangement in F major encompasses the cantus firmus with two figured outer parts. The arrangement which follows in A major is a highly artistic fughetta based on the first two chorale lines. The 12 arrangements of catechism hymns, BWV 678-689 form the main part of the collection and only this group is specifically named in the title. Once again, for each of its six hymns there are two arrangements, the more demanding for pedaliter, and a simpler one for manual. It begins with the hymn to the decalogue “Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’”, five-part for 2 pianos and pedal: “Canto fermo in Canone”, as expressly stated in the main title. It is played as a two-part octave canon in the medium range with a hand on one manual, counterpointed by two animated upper parts on the other manual and the calmly moving bass voice of the pedal. “Canon” also means “law” or “command”, so that the sense of the hymn is already depicted in the style technique. However, the canon is first and foremost a purely musical medium without symbolical ballast, which Bach was fond of applying especially in elaborate movements. In the arrangement of the “Vater Unser” (Lord’s Prayer) - four pieces later - it would, for instance, be difficult to establish any symbolic relation with the cantus firmus canon also in existence there. The smaller arrangement of the decalogue hymn is again a fughetta on the first chorale line. Reference has frequently been made to the numerical parallels of their thematic aspects with the ten figure of the commandments. The first prelude to the hymn of faith “Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott” is the only one of the “large” arrangements restricted to a fugal-type development of the first chorale line, probably on account of the inordinate length of he whole chorale melody. The smaller arrangement is a fughetta on the same chorale line in the strongly dotted “French” rhythm. A motion-style counterpart to this is effected by the large arrangement of the Vater Unser, with its flourishing Lombardic and triplet rhythms of the figured discant and tenor parts which counterpoint the cantus firmus performed in the alto and tenor II as octave canon after long pre-imitations. The pedal bass, moving steadily forward in quavers despite all the chromatic phrasing, gives the rhythmically intricate movement its firm support. - In accordance with the manner of numerous chorales of the Orgelbüchlein, the smaller arrangement develops the whole chorale melody unembellished and without interludes in the discant to a uniform figuration model of the three lower voices. The two musical settings of the baptismal hymn “Christ, unser Herr, zum jordan kam” offer rich possibilities for tonal symbolical interpretation. For what is more obvious as regards the first piece than to see Christ in the cross-style main motif of the two upper parts, and the River Jordan in the semi-quaver motion of the bass? And would one not similarly interpret the second piece, with the parallel of the unembellished with the diminishing chorale voice, as a Christ-John allegory, even seeing the three inversions as depicting immersion during baptism? However, there are other, just as plausible con structions, which urge one to exercise caution. The large arrangement based on the penetential hymn “Aus tiefer Not schrei’ ich zu dir” is, together with the 6-part ricercar from the Musikalischen Opfer, Bach’s only strictly sixpart movement for a keyboard instrument. With this, as well as with the large arrangements to the Kyrie hymns, it also shares the movement principle of the stile antico and scoring in major bars. The cantus firmus lies in the pedal, to which, however, is entrusted a second, the actual bass part. This “double pedal playing”, which has countless predecessors in German organ music, had already gone out of use during Bach’s time. The second, “smaller” arrangement is practically on a par with the first, as regards length and artistic skill. The pre-imitations on the individual chorale lines are each developed as “counter fugues”. The first arrangement on the last hymn “Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns den Zorn Gottes wandt” is a concertante trio movement with the chorale melody in the pedal; the second is an extended fugue on the first chorale line, with various strettos, metric changes and a concluding enlargement of the theme. Bach performers have so far had a particularly difficult time with the four duets. Organists considered them to be harpsichord music, while harpsichordists usually lacked the proper approach to them, This approach is blocked if, for instance, the duets are regarded merely as extended “inventions”, since all that the former have in common with the latter is their two-part element. These are movements of a thoroughly modern type, movements incidentally with very contrary affect content and varying structure. They are arranged in ascending key sequence E minor, F major, G major, A minor and can be similarly used as preludes in church services. by Georg von Dadelsen English translation by Frederick A. Bishop This critical and complete stylistic survey of Bach's organ works is the ninth part and will be continued by further releases.
Johann Sebastian Bach - DAS ORGELWERK