2 LP's - BC 25107-T/1-2 - (p) 1969

1 LP - Valois MB 849 - (p) 1968
1 LP - Valois MB 850 - (p) 1968

DAS ORGELWERK - VOL. 10



Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) - Das Orgelbüchlein



Long Playing 1 - (Valois MB 849)

Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland, BWV 599 0' 52"
Gottes Sohn ist kommen, BWV 600 0' 53"
Herr Christ, der ein'ge Gottes Sohn, oder: Herr Gott, nun sei gepreiset, BWV 601 1' 38"
Lob sei dem allmächtigen Gott, BWV 602 0' 48"
Puer matus in Bethlehem, BWV 603 0' 47"
Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 604 1' 01"
Der Tag, des ist so Freudenreich, BWV 605 1' 33"
Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her, BWV 606 0' 39"
Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar, BWV 607 1' 00"
In dulci jubilo, BWV 608 1' 25"
Lobt Gott, ihr Christen allzugleich, BWV 609 0' 43"
Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 610 2' 18"
Christum wir sollen loben schon, BWV 611 1' 43"
Wir Christenleut', BWV 612 1' 08"


Helft mir Gottes Güte preisen, BWV 613 1' 01"
Das alte Jahr vergangen ist, BWV 614 2' 03"
In dir ist Freude, BWV 615 2' 33"
Mit Fried' und Freud' ich fahr' dahin, BWV 616 2' 09"
Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf, BWV 617 2' 11"
O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig, BWV 618 3' 08"
Christe, du Lamm Gottes, BWV 619 1' 05"
Christus, der uns selig macht, BWV 620 1' 56"
Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund', BWV 621 1' 10"
Long Playing 2 - (Valois MB 850)

O Mensch bewein dein Sünde groß, BWV 622 4' 34"
Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ, daß du für uns gestorben bist, BWV 623 0' 53"
Hilf Gott, daß mir's gelinge, BWV 624 1' 19"
Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 625 1' 25"
Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, BWV 626 0' 39"
Christ ist erstanden (3 Verse), BWV 627 4' 05"
Erstanden ist der heil'ge Christ, BWV 628 0' 40"
Erstanden ist der herrliche Tag, BWV 629 0' 51"
Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn, BWV 630 1' 16"
Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist, BWV 631 0' 44"


Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend', BWV 632 1' 12"
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 633 3' 26" |
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 634 |
Dies sind die heil'gen zehn Gebot, BWV 635 1' 19"
Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 636 1' 29"
Durch Adam's Fall ist ganz verderbt, BWV 637 1' 20"
Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, BWV 638 1' 01"
Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639 2' 12"
In dich hab' ich gehoffet, Herr, BWV 640 0' 58"
Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein, BWV 641 1' 56"
Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten, BWV 642 1' 25"
Alle Menschen müssen sterben, BWV 643 1' 07"
Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig, BWV 644 0' 35"


 
Michel Chapuis
an der Andersen-Orgel der Erlöser-Kirche, Kopenhagen
 





Luogo e data di registrazione
Kopenhagen (Danimarca) - settembre 1968

Registrazione: live / studio
studio

Producer / Engineer
Michael Bernstein

Prima Edizione LP
- Valois - MB 849 · Vol. 9 - (1 LP) - durata 33' 44" - (p) 1968 - Analogico
- Valois - MB 850 · Vol. 10 - (1 LP) - durata 34' 26" - (p) 1968 - Analogico

"Das Orgelwerke" LP
Telefunken - BC 25107-T/1-2 - (2 LP's) - durata 33' 44" / 34' 26" - (p) 1969 - Analogico

Note
-












The “Orgelbüchlein” (Little Organ Book) has for decades been regarded as the basic instruction manual of the organist, while for many music enthusiasts it is altogether the climax of Bach’s art of the organ, the “Lexicon of Bach’s tonal language”, to use the phrase coined by Albert Schweitzer. The first, the instructional value, has remained undisputed to the present day. The second is a definite exaggeration which is more inclined to obscure than clarify the view for the singularity of these works. The works are 45 short, i. e., concise chorale arrangements without interludes, musical miniatures the length of a single chorale verse. There is thus no possibility of expansion. Within these bounds the concertato style of the Italians, with which Bach happened to be preoccupied at the time these pieces were composed, is scarcely capable of development. Similarly there is little scope here for the compulsory modulatory scheme which distinguishes Bach’s free organ works; for the course of the harmony is essentially predetermined by the chorale melody. Therefore the entire compositional imagination is concentrated on enlivening the short chorale melodies in ever fresh figural ways, and enriching and interpreting them by means of counterpoint and harmony. This restriction makes concentration compulsory. The result is the emergence of small works of art whose luminosity and forcefulness can hardly be surpassed. However, as is the rule with miniatures, they are more closely related to pure craftsmanship than to larger, more extensive creations.
The craftsmanship-systematic trait is even more evident in the original plan of the overall collection. For the “Orgelbüchlein” is a torso. In the thick volume of music, which we still possess today, Bach had initially entered at the top of the individual pages which were intended to accommodate the compositions the titles of the chorales: a total of 163 pieces. In this respect he accorded with the system usual at that time in the Lutheran hymn-books, which begins with the feasts of the church year from Advent to Trinity and carries on to the catechism hymns and the hymns for special occasions. His selection was evidently made according to an old Weimar hymn-book. When setting out his little organ book he immediately took into account the varying volume of the planned arrangements: for most of them he reserves one page of manuscript, for some longer ones two pages, and he also arranges the longer ones in such a way that the performer does not need to turn the page during the piece.
However, of the envisaged Chorales he then set out only 45, just a little more than a quarter. The hymns from Advent to Eastertide are almost entirely set to music. Then the gaps become even wider: from many of the groups he had in mind he composed only one hymn, from various others, such as church hymns or from the daily and grace group of songs, he composed none at all.
The chorales listed are intended for the following feasts and occasions: Advent BWV 599-602, Christmas 603-612, New Year 613-615, Candlemas 616-617, Passion 618-624, Easter 625-629, Ascension 630, Whitsun 631, Introductory Hymns 632 to 633/634, Catechism Hymns 635-636, Repentance 637, Justification 638, Christian Change 639, Consolation 640-642, Funeral 643, Repentance and Holy Communion (supplement) 644.
Except for very few subsequent supplementations, all of these pieces were composed in Weimar between 1713 and 1715 and entered in the Orgelbüchlein. (It is only a legend that the Orgelbüchlein was produced in order to instruct the older sons at the end of the Köthen years or even that it was used as a“pastime” during the Weimar confinement at the end of 1717). Quite evidently it was intended to be a complete collection of those chorales which Bach had to play in his position as court organist during church services: a complete chorale book for the organist - however, not for accompanying the congregation’s singing, but conceived for soloist performance. It is closely connected with Bach’s Weimar official duties, and thus its torso-like condition can initially be explained by the fact with his appointment as concertmaster in the spring of 1714 Bach regularly had to compose cantatas and the organ works had to recede into the background. His interest in these small forms may have subsequently waned: the 45 listed pieces provided sufficient examples for the various contrapuntal, figural and harmonic possibilities in which a chorale was to be arranged. Therefore he subsequently gave the uncompleted Büchlein at the end of his Köthen years a title which emphasises the educational, exemplary intention of the individual pieces and no longer refers to the hymn-book type arrangement intent upon perfection:
“Orgel-Büchlein in which a beginning organist is instructed how to set a chorale in diverse manners, also how to qualify in study of the pedal, in so far as the chorales contained herein shall be played with the pedal fully obbligato
To God on High all honour due.
To teach another skills anew.”
Thus the pieces are now seen as examples of how to set a chorale and obtain proficiency in using the pedal.
The 45 pieces (if one counts separately each of the two only slightly differing versions of “Liebster Jesu” BWV 633 and 634 there are 46) are almost all in four-part settings. Only two (619 and 633/634) are five-part, two (599 and 615) in some passages expand the four-part setting to five-part. The chorale melody is mainly in the treble, only in 611 it is in the alto, and in the canonic setting 618 in the pedal and alto. As a rule it is rendered in simple note values or figured to only a minor degree in a somewhat expanded chorale measure. The precise tempo emerges from the movement style and the density of the other parts. Only in two cases (627 and 635) is the chorale scored as broadly expansive in long note values. Expression marks such as largo, adagio or adagio assai (622) at the same time indicate particularly intensive expression in some settings, but are absent in other similar ones. Similarly performance and registration directions exist in the case of only a few of the settings, and are by no means as systematically provided as the present-day organist would wish. This is why various interpretations, especially of the Orgelbüchlein, differ to the extent of complete contradiction, and even of unrecognizability.
In a few settings the main expression has been shifted to the chorale part itself, which for this purpose is strongly figured. The best examples for this technique are the two Passion or funeral Chorales “O Mensch, bewein dein Sünden gross” (622) and “Wenn wir in höchsten Noten sein” (641). In eight pieces the chorale melody is arranged as a canon, thus all the more strongly incorporating the other voices: 600, 608, 620, 629 octave canon between discant and pedal; 618 fifth canon between pedal and alto; 619 canon in the interval of the twelfth between manual bass and discant, 624 and 633/634 fifth canon between discant and alto.
If one excludes those settings in which the pedal performs the chorale as one of the two canon voices, it is conspicuous that in the whole of the Orgelbüchlein that manner of setting which was once particularly usual is missing in which the chorale is played only by the pedal - with a distinguishing register in discant, alto or tenor range - and the manuals were reserved for the accompanying voices. Perhaps this is connected with Bach’s intention to use the pedal obbligato, that is to say in this context independently both as regards the chorale melody, as well as a really independent bass part, and not merely as a reinforcement of the bass. In this way the most important counter-part to the chorale cantus firmus is transferred to the pedal. Its form depends not only upon the chorale melody, but above all upon the arrangement principle which Bach chose for the individual piece, and upon the task which he apportions to the individual voices.
The basic rule in this respect is that the arrangement principle, once chosen, is maintained for the whole piece: uniformity of the mode of arrangement. A firmly marked motif, often also only a pithy rhythm (as for example in 629 of the anapaest), determines the contrapuntal voices and is developed in them. It can be taken from the chorale melody (as for instance in 613, 614, 635 and 641), or be freely invented. Longer, clearly contoured motifs are mainly arranged imitatively.
The possibility now results of clearly distinguishing the individual voices from each other in the movement (and then also mainly in the motif element). For example in the threepart “Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” (639), where, with the crotchet basic movement of the chorale, the pedal bass is played in quavers and the tenor in semiquavers. The various motional forms of individual voices in 600, 607, 617 and 624 are maintained in a similarly strict manner. More frequently the two middle voices combine into an independent duet vis-a-vis the discant and the pedal bass, as for instance in 603, 604 or, particularly clearly, in 605, as well as in numerous other settings. The motion of the duet often alternates with that of the pedal (602, 642, 643) or extends to the discant (e. g. 606). This duet-style lead of the middle voices is mainly due to a particularly independent ostinato pedal rendering (603, 604, 628, 637 and 644); as a steadily binding element it has to mediate between the ostinato bass and the chorale discant. The middle voices also form into a duet where they are flanked by two canon parts. In the setting of the Christmas carol “In dulci jubilo” (608) they unite into a second canon which counterpoints the rocking 3/2 rhythm of the cantus firmus voices in 9/8 movement.
However, the three lower voices are just as often treated as a uniform complex from the point of view of motif and rhythm. In this respect they usually supplement each other to form a consecutive semiquaver movement. This is the case with the very first piece, the Advent hymn “Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland”. In this style of setting too the pedal maintains its role as the main counter-part to the chorale cantus firmus, but on the whole the setting is uniformly through formed. The examples of where the motif material of the accompanying parts is taken from the chorale-usually from its first line - or in which a significant motif is imitatively arranged, for the greater part belong to this group.
However much the individual settings might differ from each other, they nevertheless all keep to the self-chosen restriction of performing the chorale melody only once, and that in one passage without interlude. The only deviation from this is the arrangement 615 “In dir ist Freude”, the setting to the old dance melody by Gastoldi, which shortly after its composition was parodied in sacred form. This piece is more of a chorale paraphrase than a strict organ chorale.
The chorale melody retains its text also in the case of instrumental performance. It is known to the congregation, which hears the words so to speak in spirit. To what extent did Bach when choosing his arrangement technique allow himself to be guided by the text, and how strongly has he interpreted this text literally? Despite all the preoccupation with the musical-rhetorical figures and the musical symbolism of Bach’s era, only very general statements can be made here which are far from well-founded in every respect. For this reason one should be careful of precipitate interpretations, especially as regards word-tone connections. The fact that two of the arrangements (600, 601) are expressly intended to be used for two different hymn texts each, and further the idea of which chorale verse initially inspired Bach, should of itself provide grounds for caution.
That the overall emotion of the text also always determines the character of the arrangement is evident from the first comparison, such as the joyful Christmas Chorales with the passion hymns. But why of all things the artistic chorale for the New Year “Das alte Jahr vergangen ist” (614) should be even more chromatic and more suffering in expression than the former cannot be explained solely from the chorale text. That the ostinato seventh descents of the pedal in the repentance hymn “Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt” (637) are intended to illustrate the fall of man is wholly convincing; the continual alterations in this setting might also with some justification be accepted as the musical symbol of “corruption”. But the sign of the cross figure to which reference is constantly made, especially in connection with 621, “Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund”, is far too common from a musical point of view for it to be accepted as a metaphor for the cross and suffering without further indications to support this interpretation: it is seldom lacking in any piece of music. In this respect it should be borne in mind that even during the Baroque period it was certainly not a part of the nature of musical works of art to provide outward visible expression to all textual and conceptual references which may have been in the composer’s mind, and that music, as the language of the soul, possesses rather its own immediately comprehensible terms which cannot be translated.
by Georg von Dadelsen
English translation by Frederick A. Bishop
This critical and complete stylistic survey of Bach's organ works is the tenth and last part.

Johann Sebastian Bach - DAS ORGELWERK