Clavier-Übung III

History and origins#

25 November 1736 saw the consecration of a new organ, built by Gottfried Silbermann, in a central and symbolic position in the Frauenkirche, Dresden. The following week, on the afternoon of 1 December, Bach gave a two-hour organ recital there, which received “great applause”. Bach was used to playing on church organs in Dresden, where since 1733 his son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, had been organist at the Sophienkirche. It is considered likely that for the December recital Bach performed for the first time parts of his as yet unpublished Clavier-Übung III, the composition of which, according to Gregory Butler’s dating of the engraving, started as early as 1735. This inference has been drawn from the special indication on the title page that it was “prepared for music-lovers and particularly connoisseurs” of music; from contemporary reports of Bach’s custom of giving organ recitals for devotees after services; and from the subsequent tradition among music lovers in Dresden of attending Sunday afternoon organ recitals in the Frauenkirche given by Bach’s student Gottfried August Homilius, whose programme was usually made up of chorale preludes and a fugue. Bach was later to complain that the temperament on Silbermann organs was not well suited to “today’s practice”. Clavier-Übung III is the third of four books of Bach’s Clavier-Übung. It was the only portion of music meant for the organ, the other three parts being for harpsichord. The title, meaning “keyboard practice”, was a conscious reference to a long tradition of similarly titled treatises: Johann Kuhnau (Leipzig, 1689, 1692), Johann Philipp Krieger (Nuremberg, 1698), Vincent Lübeck (Hamburg, 1728), Georg Andreas Sorge (Nuremberg, 1739) and Johann Sigismund Scholze (Leipzig 1736–1746). Bach started composing after finishing Clavier-Übung II—the Italian Concerto, BWV 971 and the Overture in the French style, BWV 831—in 1735. Bach used two groups of engravers because of delays in preparation: 43 pages by three engravers from the workshop of Johann Gottfried Krügner in Leipzig and 35 pages by Balthasar Schmid in Nuremberg. The final 78-page manuscript was published in Leipzig in Michaelmas (late September) 1739 at the relatively high price of 3 Reichsthaler. Bach’s Lutheran theme was in keeping with the times, since already that year there had been three bicentenary Reformation festivals in Leipzig. In translation, the title page reads “Third Part of Keyboard Practice, consisting of various preludes on the Catechism and other hymns for the organ. Prepared for music-lovers and particularly for connoisseurs of such work, for the recreation of the spirit, by Johann Sebastian Bach, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Composer, Capellmeister and director of the chorus musicus, Leipzig. Published by the author”. Examination of the original manuscript suggests that the Kyrie-Gloria and larger catechism chorale preludes were the first to be composed, followed by the “St Anne” prelude and fugue and the manualiter chorale preludes in 1738 and finally the four duets in 1739. Apart from BWV 676, all the material was newly composed. The scheme of the work and its publication were probably motivated by Georg Friedrich Kauffmann’s Harmonische Seelenlust (1733–1736), Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch’s Compositioni Musicali (1734–1735) and chorale preludes by Hieronymus Florentinus Quehl, Johann Gottfried Walther and Johann Caspar Vogler published between 1734 and 1737, as well as the older Livres d’orgue, the French Organ Masses of Nicolas de Grigny (1700), Pierre Dumage (1707) and others. Bach’s formulation of the title page follows some of these earlier works in describing the particular form of the compositions and appealing to “connoisseurs”, his only departure from the title page of Clavier-Übung II. Although Clavier-Übung III is acknowledged to be not merely a miscellaneous collection of pieces, there has been no agreement on whether it forms a cycle or is just a set of closely related pieces. As with previous organ works of this type by composers such as François Couperin, Johann Caspar Kerll and Dieterich Buxtehude, it was in part a response to musical requirements in church services. Bach’s references to Italian, French and German music place Clavier-Übung III directly in the tradition of the Tabulaturbuch, a similar but much earlier collection by Elias Ammerbach, one of Bach’s predecessors at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Bach’s complex musical style had been criticized by some of his contemporaries. The composer, organist and musicologist Johann Mattheson remarked in “Die kanonische Anatomie” (1722): Until 1731, apart from his celebrated ridiculing in 1725 of Bach’s declamatory writing in the cantata Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21, Mattheson’s commentary on Bach had been positive. In 1730, however, he heard by chance that Gottfried Benjamin Hancke had been commenting unfavourably on his own keyboard technique: “Bach will play Mattheson into a sack and out again.” From 1731 onwards, his vanity pricked, Mattheson’s writing became critical of Bach, whom he referred to as “der künstliche Bach”. Over the same period Bach’s former pupil Johann Adolf Scheibe had been making stinging criticisms of Bach: in 1737 he wrote that Bach “deprived his pieces of all that was natural by giving them a bombastic and confused character, and eclipsed their beauty by too much art”. Scheibe and Mattheson were employing practically the same lines of attack on Bach; and indeed Mattheson involved himself directly in Scheibe’s campaign against Bach. Bach did not comment directly at the time: his case was argued with some discreet prompting from Bach by Johann Abraham Birnbaum, professor of rhetoric at the University of Leipzig, a music lover and friend of Bach and Lorenz Christoph Mizler. In March 1738 Scheibe launched a further attack on Bach for his “not inconsiderable errors”: In the advertisement in 1738 for his forthcoming treatise, Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739), Mattheson included a letter by Scheibe, resulting from his exchanges with Birnbaum, in which Scheibe expressed strong preference for Mattheson’s “natural” melody over Bach’s “artful” counterpoint. Through his friend Mizler and his Leipzig printers Krügner and Breitkopf, also printers for Mattheson, like others Bach would have had advance knowledge of the content of Mattheson’s treatise. Concerning counterpoint, Mattheson wrote: Whatever Bach’s personal reaction, the contrapuntal writing of Clavier-Übung III provided a musical response to Scheibe’s criticisms and Mattheson’s call to organists. Mizler’s statement, cited above, that the qualities of Clavier-Übung III provided a “powerful refutation of those who have ventured to criticize the music of the Court Composer” was a verbal response to their criticisms. Nevertheless, most commentators agree that the main inspiration for Bach’s monumental opus was musical, namely musical works like the Fiori musicali of Girolamo Frescobaldi, for which Bach had a special fondness, having acquired his own personal copy in Weimar in 1714.

Textual and musical plan#

The number of chorale preludes in Clavier-Übung III, twenty-one, coincides with the number of movements in French organ Masses. The Mass and Catechism settings correspond to the schedule of Sunday worship in Leipzig, the morning Mass and afternoon catechism. In contemporary hymn books, the Lutheran Mass comprising the troped German Kyrie and German Gloria fell under the heading of the Holy Trinity. The organist and music theorist Jakob Adlung recorded in 1758 the custom of church organists playing the two Sunday hymns “Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr” and “Wir glauben all an einen Gott”’ in different keys: Bach uses three of the six tonalities between E and B mentioned for “Allein Gott”. The organ had no role in the catechism examination, a series of questions and answers on the faith, so the presence of these hymns was probably a personal devotional statement of Bach. However, Luther’s Shorter Catechism (see illustration) centres on the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Office of the Keys and Confession, and the Eucharist, the exact subjects of Luther’s own six catechism chorales. In Bach’s part of Germany, these catechism hymns were sung at school assemblies on weekdays, with the Kyrie and Gloria on Sundays. Luther’s hymn book contains all six of the chorales. However, it is more likely that Bach used these hymns, some of them Gregorian in origin, as a tribute to the main precepts of Lutheranism during the special bicentenary year of Luther’s 1539 sermon in the Thomaskirche, Leipzig. The main texts for Lutherans were the Bible, the hymn book and the catechisms: Bach had already set numerous biblical texts in his cantatas and passions; in 1736 he had helped prepare a hymn book with Georg Christian Schemelli; finally in 1739 he set the catechism hymns (see earlier illustration of title page) as organ chorale preludes. has suggested the following features that Clavier-Übung III borrowed from Frescobaldi’s Fiori musicali, Bach’s personal copy of which was signed “J.S. Bach 1714”: *Intent. The Fiori were written “mainly to assist organists” with compositions “corresponding to Mass and vespers”. *Plan. The first of the three sets of the Fiori consists of a Toccata prelude before the Mass, 2 Kyries, 5 Christes, followed by a further 6 Kyries; then a Canzone (after the Epistle), a Ricercare (after the Credo), a Toccata Cromatica (for the Elevation) and finally a Canzona fugue (after the post-communion). *Polyphony. Frescobaldi’s short Kyries and Christes are written in four-part stile antico counterpoint. Many of them have a constantly running cantus firmus or pedal point. *Structure. The mutations and combination of themes in fugue BWV 552/2 are closely matched by the closing canzona in the first set and the alternative ricercare in the second set of the Fiori. Similarly, the ostinato bass of the fugue BWV 680 is prefigured by a ricercare fugue with a five-note ostinato bass in the Fiori. According to , Bach had a clear liturgical purpose in his organ compendium, with its cyclic order and plan, clear to the eye if not the ear. Even though the manualiter fugues were written at the time as Book 2 of The Well-Tempered Clavier, only the last fugue BWV 689 has anything in common. Bach’s musical plan has a multitude of structures: the organum plenum pieces; the three styles of polyphony, manualiter and trio sonata in the Mass; the pairs in the Catechism, two with cantus firmus in canon, two with pedal cantus firmus, two for full organ); and the free invention in the duets. The fughetta BWV 681 at the centre of Clavier-Übung III plays a structural role similar to the central pieces in the other three parts of Bach’s Clavier-Übung, to mark the beginning of the second half of the collection. It is written using the musical motifs of a French overture, as in the first movement of the fourth of Bach’s keyboard Partitas BWV 828 (Clavier-Übung I), the first movement of his Overture in the French style, BWV 831 (Clavier-Übung II), the sixteenth variation of the Goldberg Variations BWV 988 (Clavier-Übung IV), marked “Ouverture. a 1 Clav”, and Contrapunctus VII in the original manuscript version of Die Kunst der Fuge as contained in P200. Although possibly intended for use in services, the technical difficulty of Clavier-Übung III, like that of Bach’s later compositions—the Canonic Variations BWV 769, The Musical Offering BWV 1079 and The Art of Fugue BWV 1080—would have made the work too demanding for most Lutheran church organists. Indeed, many of Bach’s contemporaries deliberately wrote music to be accessible to a wide range of organists: Sorge composed simple 3-part chorales in his Vorspiele (1750), because chorale preludes such as Bach’s were “so difficult and almost unusable by players”; Vogel, Bach’s former student from Weimar, wrote his Choräle “principally for those who have to play in country” churches; and another Weimar student, Johann Ludwig Krebs, wrote his Klavierübung II (1737) so that it could be played “by a lady, without much trouble”. Clavier-Übung III combines German, Italian and French styles, particularly in the opening Preludium, BWV 552/1, whose three thematic groups seem deliberately chosen to represent France, Italy and Germany respectively (see discussion of BWV 552/1 below). This reflects a trend in late 17th- and early 18th-century Germany for composers and musicians to write and perform in a style that became known as the “mixed taste”, a phrased coined by Quantz. In 1730, Bach had written a now-famous letter to the Leipzig town council—his “Short but Most Necessary Draft for a Well-Appointed Church Music”—complaining not only of performing conditions, but also of the pressure to employ performing styles from different countries: Already in 1695, in the dedication of his Florilegium Primum, Georg Muffat had written, “I dare not employ a single style or method, but rather the most skillful mixture of styles I can manage through my experience in various countries … As I mix the French manner with the German and Italian, I do not begin a war, but perhaps a prelude to the unity, the dear peace, desired by all the peoples.” This tendency was encouraged by contemporary commentators and musicologists, including Bach’s critics Mattheson and Scheibe, who, in praising the chamber music of his contemporary Georg Philipp Telemann, wrote that, “it is best if German part writing, Italian galanterie and French passion are combined”. Recalling Bach’s early years in the Michaelisschule in Lüneburg between 1700 and 1702, his son Carl Philipp Emanuel records in the Nekrolog, Bach’s obituary of 1754: The court orchestra of Georg Wilhelm, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg was established in 1666 and concentrated on the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully, which became popular in Germany between 1680 and 1710. It is probable that Bach heard the orchestra at the Duke’s summer residence at Dannenberg near Lüneburg. In Lüneburg itself, Bach would have also heard the compositions of Georg Böhm, organist at the Johanniskirche, and of Johann Fischer, a visitor in 1701, both of whom were influenced by the French style. Later in the Nekrolog C.P.E. Bach also reports that, “In the art of organ, he took the works of Bruhns, Buxtehude, and several good French organists as models.” In 1775, he expanded on this to Bach’s biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel noting that his father had studied not only the works of Buxtehude, Böhm, Nicolaus Bruhns, Fischer, Frescobaldi, Froberger, Kerll, Pachelbel, Reincken and Strunck, but also of “some old and good Frenchmen.” Contemporary documents indicate that these composers would have included Boyvin, Nivers, Raison, d’Anglebert, Corrette, Lebègue, Le Roux, Dieupart, François Couperin, Nicolas de Grigny and Marchand. (The latter, according to an anecdote of Forkel, fled from Dresden in 1717 to avoid competing with Bach in a keyboard “duel”.) At the court of Weimar in 1713, Prince Johann Ernst, a keen musician, is reported to have brought back Italian and French music from his travels in Europe. At the same time, or possibly earlier, Bach made meticulous copies of the entire Livre d’Orgue (1699) of de Grigny and the table of ornaments from d’Anglebert’s Pièces de clavecin (1689), and his student Vogler made copies of two Livres d’Orgue of Boyvin. In addition, at Weimar, Bach would have had access to the extensive collection of French music of his cousin Johann Gottfried Walther. Much later, in the exchanges between Birnbaum and Scheibe over Bach’s compositional style in 1738, while Clavier-Übung III was in preparation, Birnbaum brought up the works of de Grigny and Dumage in connection with ornamentation, probably at the suggestion of Bach. Apart from the elements of “French ouverture” style in the opening prelude BWV 552/1 and the central manualiter chorale prelude BWV 681, commentators agree that the two large-scale five-part chorale preludes—Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot BWV 678 and Vater unser im Himmelreich BWV 682—are partly inspired by the five-part textures of Grigny, with two parts in each manual and the fifth in the pedal. Commentators have taken Clavier-Übung III to be a summation of Bach’s technique in writing for the organ, and at the same time a personal religious statement. As in his other later works, Bach’s musical language has an otherworldly quality, whether modal or conventional. Compositions apparently written in major keys, such as the trio sonatas BWV 674 or 677, can nevertheless have an ambiguous key. Bach composed in all known musical forms: fugue, canon, paraphrase, cantus firmus, ritornello, development of motifs and various forms of counterpoint. There are five polyphonic stile antico compositions (BWV 669–671, 686 and the first section of 552/ii), showing the influence of Palestrina and his followers, Fux, Caldara and Zelenka. Bach, however, even if he employs the long note values of the stile antico, goes beyond the original model, as for example in BWV 671. describes one aim of Clavier-Übung III as being to provide an idealized programme for an organ recital. Such recitals were described later by Bach’s biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel: The musical plan of Clavier-Übung III conforms to this pattern of a collection of chorale preludes and chamber-like works framed by a free prelude and fugue for organum plenum.

Numerological significance#

has given an analysis of the numerology of Clavier-Übung III. According to Wolff there is a cyclic order. The opening prelude and fugue frame three groups of pieces: the nine chorale preludes based on the kyrie and gloria of the Lutheran Mass; the six pairs of chorale preludes on the Lutheran catechism; and the four duets. Each group has its own internal structure. The first group is made up of three groups of three. The first three chorales on the kyrie in the stile antico hark back to the polyphonic Masses of Palestrina, with increasingly complex textures. The next group consists of three short versets on the kyrie that have progressive time signatures , , and . In the third group of three trio sonatas on the German gloria, two manualiter settings frame a trio for two manuals and pedal with a regular progression of keys, F major, G major and A major. Each pair of catechism chorales has a setting for two manuals and pedal followed by a smaller scale manualiter fugal chorale. The group of 12 catechism chorales is further broken up into two groups of six grouped around pivotal grand plenum organum settings (Wir glauben and Auf tiefer Noth). The duets are related by the successive key progression, E minor, F major, G major, and A minor. Clavier-Übung III thus combines many different structures: pivotal patterns; similar or contrasting pairs; and progressively increasing symmetry. There is also an overriding numerological symbolism. The nine Mass settings (3 × 3) refer to the three of the Trinity in the Mass, with specific reference to Father, Son and Holy Ghost in the corresponding texts. The number twelve of the catechism chorales can be seen as a reference to the usual ecclesiastical use of the number 12, the number of disciples. The whole work has 27 pieces (3 × 3 × 3), completing the pattern. However, despite this structure, it is unlikely that the work was ever intended to be performed as a whole: it was intended as a compendium, a resource for organists for church performances, with the duets possibly accompaniments for communion. comments on the occurrences of the golden ratio in Clavier-Übung III pointed out by various musicologists. The division of bars between the prelude (205) and fugue (117) provides one example. In the fugue itself the three parts have 36, 45 and 36 bars, so the golden ratio appears between lengths of the middle section and outer sections. The midpoint of the middle section is pivotal, with the first appearance there of the first subject against a disguised version of the second. Finally in BWV 682, Vater unser in Himmelreich (the Lord’s Prayer), a pivotal point, where the manual and pedal parts are exchanged, occurs at bar 41, which is the sum of the numerical order of letters in JS BACH (using the Baroque convention of identifying I with J and U with V). The later cadence at bar 56 in the 91 bar chorale prelude gives another instance of the golden ratio. 91 itself factorises as 7, signifying prayer, times 13, signifying sin, the two elements—canonic law and the wayward soul—also represented directly in the musical structure.

Prelude and fugue BWV 552#

:The descriptions below are based on the detailed analysis in .

BWV 552/1 Praeludium#

Together with the Toccata in F major BWV 540, this is the longest of Bach’s organ preludes. It combines the elements of a French overture (first theme), an Italian concerto (second theme) and a German fugue (third theme), although adapted to the organ. There are the conventional dotted rhythms of an ouverture, but the alternation of themes owes more to the tradition of contrasting passages in organ compositions than the solo-tutti exchanges in a Vivaldi concerto. Originally possibly written in the key of D major, a more common key for a concerto or ouverture, Bach might have transposed it and the fugue into E major because Mattheson had described the key in 1731 as a “beautiful and majestic key” avoided by organists. The piece also has three separate themes (A, B, C), sometimes overlapping, which commentators have interpreted as representing the Father, Son and Holy Ghost in the Trinity. Other references to the Trinity include the three flats in the key signature, like the accompanying fugue. As the prelude progresses, the reprises of the first theme are shortened, as in a typical Vivaldi concerto; that of the second theme is simply transposed to the dominant; and those of the third theme become more extended and developed. There are no toccata-like passages and the musical writing is quite different from that of the period. For each theme the pedal part has a different character: a baroque basso continuo in the first theme; a quasi-pizzicato bass in the second; and a stile antico bass in the third, with notes alternating between the feet. All three themes share a three semiquaver figure: in the first theme in bar 1, it is a figure typical of a French ouverture; in the second theme in bar 32, it is an echo in the galant Italian style; and in the third theme in bar 71, it is a motif typical of German organ fugues. The three themes reflect national influences: the first French; the second Italian, with its galant writing; and the third German, with many elements drawn from the tradition of North German organ fugues. The markings of forte and piano in the second theme for the echos show that at least two manuals were needed; Williams has suggested that perhaps even three manuals could have been intended, with the first theme played on the first keyboard, the second and third on the second and the echos on the third. First theme: God, the Father The first theme has the dotted rhythms, marked with slurs, of a French ouverture. It is written for five parts with complex suspended harmonies. The first reprise (A2) of the theme in the minor key contains typically French harmonic progressions: Second theme: God, the Son This theme, representing God, the Son, the “kind Lord”, has two bar phrases of staccato three-part chords in the galant style, with echo responses marked piano. This is followed by a more ornate syncopated version which is not further developed during the prelude: Third theme: the Holy Ghost This theme is a double fugue based on semiquavers, representing “the Holy Ghost, descending, flickering like tongues of fire.” The semiquavers are not marked with slurs, according to North German conventions. In the final development (C3) the theme passes into E minor, presaging the close of the movement, but also harking back to the previous minor episode and anticipating similar effects in later movements of Clavier-Übung III, such as the first duet BWV 802. The older style two- or three-part writing forms a contrast to the harmonically more complex and modern writing of the first theme. The semiquaver subject of the fugue is adapted for the pedal in the traditional way using alternating foot technique:

BWV 552/2 Fuga#

The fugue in E major BWV 552/2 that ends Clavier-Übung III has become known in English-speaking countries as the “St. Anne” because of the first subject’s resemblance to a hymn tune of the same name by William Croft, a tune that was not likely known to Bach. A fugue in three sections of 36 bars, 45 bars and 36 bars, with each section a separate fugue on a different subject, it has been called a triple fugue. However, the second subject is not stated precisely within the third section, but only strongly suggested in bars 93, 99, 102–04, and 113–14. The number three The number three is pervasive in both the Prelude and the Fugue, and has been understood by many to represent the Trinity. The description of Albert Schweitzer follows the 19th-century tradition of associating the three sections with the three different parts of the Trinity. The number three, however, occurs many other times: in the number of flats of the key signature; in the number of fugal sections; and in the number of bars in each section, each a multiple of three (3 × 12, 3 x 15), as well as in the month (September = 09 or 3 x 3) and year (39 or 3 x 13) of publication. Each of the three subjects seems to grow from the previous ones. Indeed, musicologist Hermann Keller has suggested that the second subject is “contained” in the first. Although perhaps hidden in the score, this is more apparent to the listener, both in their shape and in the resemblance of the quaver second subject to crotchet figures in the countersubject to the first subject. Similarly, the semiquaver figures in the third subject can be traced back to the second subject and the countersubject of the first section. Form of the fugue The form of the fugue conforms to that of a 17th-century tripartite ricercar or canzona, such as those of Froberger and Frescobaldi: firstly in the way that themes become progressively faster in successive sections; and secondly in the way one theme transforms into the next. Bach can also be seen as continuing a Leipzig tradition for contrapuntal compositions in sections going back to the keyboard ricercars and fantasias of Nicolaus Adam Strungk and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. The tempo transitions between different sections are natural: the minims of the first and second sections correspond to the dotted crotchets of the third. Source of the subjects Many commentators have remarked on similarities between the first subject and fugal themes by other composers. As an example of stile antico, it is more probably a generic theme, typical of the fuga grave subjects of the time: a “quiet " time signature, rising fourths and a narrow melodic range. As points out, the similarity to the subject of a fugue by Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch, which Bach himself published in 1734, might have been a deliberate attempt by Bach to blind his public with science. Roger Wibberly has shown that the foundation of all three fugue subjects, as well as of certain passages in the Prelude, may be found in the first four phrases of the chorale “O Herzensangst, O Bangigkeit”. The first two sections of BWV 552/2 share many affinities with the fugue in E major BWV 876/2 in The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, written during the same period. Unlike true triple fugues, like the F minor BWV 883 from the same book or some of the contrapuncti in The Art of the Fugue, Bach’s intent with BWV 552/2 may not have been to combine all three subjects, although this would theoretically have been possible. Rather, as the work progresses, the first subject is heard singing out through the others: sometimes hidden; sometimes, as in the second section, quietly in the alto and tenor voices; and finally, in the last section, high in the treble and, as the climactic close approaches, quasi-ostinato in the pedal, thundering out beneath the two sets of upper voices. In the second section it is played against quavers; and in parts of the last, against running semiquaver passagework. As the fugue progresses, this creates what Williams has called the cumulative effect of a “mass choir”. In later sections, to adapt to triple time, the first subject becomes rhythmically syncopated, resulting in what the music scholar Roger Bullivant has called “a degree of rhythmic complexity probably unparalleled in fugue of any period”. First section The first section is a quiet five-part fugue in the stile antico. The countersubject is in crotchets. There are two stretto passages, the first in thirds (below) and the second in sixths. Second section The second section is a four-part double fugue on a single manual. The second subject is in running quavers and starts on the second beat of bar 37. The first subject reappears gradually, first hinted at in the inner parts (bars 44–46) then in the treble of bar 54 before rising up from the lower register as a fully fledged countersubject (bars 59–61). Third section The third section is a five-part double fugue for full organ. The preceding bar in the second section is played as three beats of one minim (a hemiola) and thus provides the new pulse. The third subject is lively and dancelike, resembling a gigue, again starting on the second beat of the bar. The characteristic motif of 4 semiquavers in the third beat has already been heard in the countersubject of the first section and in the second subject. The running semiquaver passagework is an accelerated continuation of the quaver passagework of the second section; occasionally it incorporates motifs from the second section. At bar 88, the third subject merges into the first subject in the soprano line, although not fully apparent to the ear. Bach with great originality does not change the rhythm of the first subject, so that it becomes syncopated across bars. The subject is then passed to an inner part where it at last establishes its natural pairing with the third subject: two entries of the third exactly match a single entry of the first. Apart from a final statement of the third subject in the pedal and lower manual register in thirds, there are four quasi-ostinato pedal statements of the first subject, recalling the stile antico pedal part of the first section. Above the pedal the third subject and its semiquaver countersubject are developed with increasing expansiveness and continuity. The penultimate entry of the first subject is a canon between the soaring treble part and the pedal, with descending semiquaver scales in the inner parts. There is a climactic point at bar 114—the second bar below—with the final resounding entry of the first subject in the pedal. It brings the work to its brilliant conclusion, with a unique combination of the backward looking stile antico in the pedal and the forward looking stile moderno in the upper parts. As Williams comments, this is “the grandest ending to any fugue in music”.

Chorale preludes BWV 669–689#

:The descriptions of the chorale preludes are based on the detailed analysis in . :To listen to a MIDI recording, please click on the link.

Chorale preludes BWV 669–677 (Lutheran Mass)#

In 1526, Martin Luther published his Deutsche Messe, describing how the Mass could be conducted using congregational hymns in the German vernacular, intended in particular for use in small towns and villages where Latin was not spoken. Over the next thirty years numerous vernacular hymnbooks were published all over Germany, often in consultation with Luther, Justus Jonas, Philipp Melanchthon and other figures of the German Reformation. The 1537 Naumburg hymnbook, drawn up by Nikolaus Medler, contains the opening Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit, one of several Lutheran adaptations of the troped Kyrie summum bonum: Kyrie fons bonitatus. The first Deutsche Messe in 1525 was held at Advent so did not contain the Gloria, explaining its absence in Luther’s text the following year. Although there was a German version of the Gloria in the Naumburg hymnal, the 1523 hymn “Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr” of Nikolaus Decius, also adapted from plainchant, eventually became adopted almost universally throughout Germany: it first appeared in print with these words in the 1545 Magdeburg hymnal Kirchengesenge Deudsch of the reformist Johann Spangenberg. A century later, Lutheran liturgical texts and hymnody were in wide circulation. In Leipzig, Bach had at his disposal the Neu Leipziger gesangbuch (1682) of Gottfried Vopelius. Luther was a firm advocate of the use of the arts, particularly music, in worship. He sang in the choir of the Georgenkirche in Eisenach, where Bach’s uncle Johann Christoph Bach was later organist, his father Johann Ambrosius Bach one of the main musicians and where Bach himself would sing, a pupil at the same Latin school as Luther between 1693 and 1695.

Pedaliter settings of Kyrie BWV 669–671#

The Kyrie was usually sung in Leipzig on Sundays after the opening organ prelude. Bach’s three monumental pedaliter settings of the Kyrie correspond to the three verses. They are in strict counterpoint in the stile antico of Frescobaldi’s Fiori Musicali. All three have portions of the same melody as their cantus firmus – in the soprano voice for “God the Father”, in the middle tenor voice () for “God the Son” and in the pedal bass for “God the Holy Ghost”. Although having features in common with Bach’s vocal settings of the Kyrie, for example in his Missa in F major, BWV 233, the highly original musical style is tailored to organ technique, varying with each of the three chorale preludes. Nevertheless, as in other high-church settings of plainsong, Bach’s writing remains “grounded in the unchangeable rules of harmony”, as described in Fux’s treatise on counterpoint, Gradus ad Parnassum.” The solidity of his writing might have been a musical means of reflecting ‘firmness in faith’. As observes, “Common to all three movements is a certain seamless motion that rarely leads to full cadences or sequential repetition, both of which would be more diatonic than suits the desired transcendental style.” Below is the text of the three verses of Luther’s version of the Kyrie with the English translation of Charles Sanford Terry: Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit, groß ist dein Barmherzigkeit, aller Ding ein Schöpfer und Regierer. eleison! Christe, aller Welt Trost uns Sünder allein du hast erlöst; Jesu, Gottes Sohn, unser Mittler bist in dem höchsten Thron; zu dir schreien wir aus Herzens Begier, eleison! Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist, tröst’, stärk’ uns im Glauben allermeist daß wir am letzten End’ fröhlich abscheiden aus diesem Elend, eleison! O Lord the Father for evermore! We Thy wondrous grace adore; We confess Thy power, all worlds upholding. Have mercy, Lord. O Christ, our Hope alone, Who with Thy blood didst for us atone; O Jesu! Son of God! Our Redeemer! our Advocate on high! Lord, to Thee alone in our need we cry, Have mercy, Lord. Holy Lord, God the Holy Ghost! Who of life and light the fountain art, With faith sustain our heart, That at the last we hence in peace depart. Have mercy, Lord. *BWV 669 Kyrie, Gott Vater (Kyrie, O God, Eternal Father) BWV 669 is a chorale motet for two manuals and pedal in time. The four lines of the cantus firmus in the phrygian mode of G are played in the top soprano part on one manual in semibreve beats. The single fugal theme of the other three parts, two in the second manual and one in the pedal, is in minim beats and based on the first two lines of the cantus firmus. The writing is in alla breve strict counterpoint, occasionally departing from the modal key to B and E major. Even when playing beneath the cantus firmus, the contrapuntal writing is quite elaborate. The many stile antico features include inversions, suspensions, strettos, use of dactyls and the canone sine pausa at the close, where the subject is developed without break in parallel thirds. Like the cantus firmus, the parts move in steps, creating an effortless smoothness in the chorale prelude. *BWV 670 Christe, aller Welt Trost (Christ, Comfort of all the world) BWV 670 is a chorale motet for two manuals and pedal in time. The four lines of the cantus firmus in the phrygian mode of G are played in the tenor part (en taille) on one manual in semibreve beats. As in BWV 669, the single fugal theme of the other three parts, two in the second manual and one in the pedal, is in minim beats and based on the first two lines of the cantus firmus. The writing is again mostly modal, in alla breve strict counterpoint with similar stile antico features and a resulting smoothness. In this case, however, there are fewer inversions, the cantus firmus phrases are longer and freer, and the other parts more widely spaced, with canone sine pausa passages in sixths. *BWV 671 Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist (Kyrie, O God the Holy Ghost) BWV 671 is a chorale motet for organum plenum and pedal. The bass cantus firmus is in semibreves in the pedal with four parts above in the keyboard: tenor, alto and, exceptionally, two soprano parts, creating a unique texture. The subject of the four-part fugue in the manuals is derived from the first two lines of the cantus firmus and is answered by its inversion, typical of the stile antico. The quaver motifs in ascending and descending sequences, starting with dactyl figures and becoming increasingly continuous, swirling and scalelike, are a departure from the previous chorale preludes. Among the stile antico features are movement in steps and syncopation. Any tendency for the modal key to become diatonic is counteracted by the chromaticism of the final section where the flowing quavers come to a sudden end. Over the final line of the cantus firmus, the crotchet figures drop successively by semitones with dramatic and unexpected dissonances, recalling a similar but less extended passage at the end of the five-part chorale prelude O lux beata of Matthias Weckmann. As suggests, the twelve descending chromatic steps seem like supplications, repeated cries of eleison—“have mercy”.

Manualiter settings of Kyrie BWV 672–674#

The three manualiter chorale preludes BWV 672–674 are short fugal compositions within the tradition of the chorale fughetta, a form derived from the chorale motet in common use in Central Germany. Johann Christoph Bach, Bach’s uncle and organist at Eisenach, produced 44 such fughettas. The brevity of the fughettas is thought to have been dictated by space limitations: they were added to the manuscript at a very late stage in 1739 to fill space between already engraved pedaliter settings. Despite their length and conciseness, the fughettas are all highly unconventional, original and smoothly flowing, sometimes with an other-worldly sweetness. As freely composed chorale preludes, the fugue subjects and motifs are based loosely on the beginning of each line of the cantus firmus, which otherwise does not figure directly. The motifs themselves are developed independently with the subtlety and inventiveness typical of Bach’s later contrapuntal writing. has suggested that the set might have been inspired by the cycle of five manualiter settings of “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” in Harmonische Seelenlust, published by his contemporary Georg Friedrich Kauffmann in 1733: BWV 673 and 674 employ similar rhythms and motifs to two of Kauffmann’s chorale preludes. The Kyries seem to have been conceived as a set, in conformity with the symbolism of the Trinity. This is reflected in the contrasting time signatures of , and . They are also linked harmonically: all start in a major key and move to a minor key before the final cadence; the top part of each fughetta ends on a different note of the E major triad; and there is a matching between closing and beginning notes of successive pieces. What has called the “new, transcendental quality” of these chorale fughettas is due in part to the modal writing. The cantus firmus in the phrygian mode of E is ill-suited to the standard methods of counterpoint, since entries of the subject in the dominant are precluded by the mode. This compositional problem, exacerbated by the choice of notes on which the pieces start and finish, was solved by Bach by having other keys as the dominating keys in each fughetta. This was a departure from established conventions for counterpoint in the phrygian mode, dating back to the mid-16th century ricercar from the time of Palestrina. As Bach’s pupil Johann Kirnberger later remarked in 1771, “the great man departs from the rule in order to sustain good part-writing”. *BWV 672 Kyrie, Gott Vater (Kyrie, O God, Eternal Father) BWV 672 is a fughetta for four voices, 32 bars long. Although the movement starts in G major, the predominant tonal centre is A minor. The subject in dotted minims (G–A–B) and the quaver countersubject are derived from the first line of the cantus firmus, which also provides material for several cadences and a later descending quaver figure (bar 8 below). Some of the sequential writing resembles that of the B major fugue BWV 890/2 in the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Smoothness and mellifluousness result from what has called the “liquefying effect” of the simple time signature of ; from the use of parallel thirds in the doubling of subject and countersubject; from the clear tonalities of the four-part writing, progressing from G major to A minor, D minor, A minor and at the close E major; and from the softening effect of the occasional chromaticism, no longer dramatic as in the conclusion of the previous chorale prelude BWV 671. *BWV 673 Christe, aller Welt Trost (Christ, Comfort of all the world) BWV 673 is a fughetta for four voices, 30 bars long, in compound time. It has been described by as “a movement of immense subtlety”. The subject, three and a half bars long, is derived from the first line of the cantus firmus. The semiquaver scale motif in bar 4 is also related and is much developed throughout the piece. The countersubject, which is taken from the subject itself, uses the same syncopated leaping motif as the earlier Jesus Christus unser Heiland BWV 626 from the Orgelbüchlein, similar to gigue-like figures used earlier by Buxtehude in his chorale prelude Auf meinen lieben Gott BuxWV 179; it has been interpreted as symbolising the triumph of the risen Christ over death. In contrast to the preceding fughetta, the writing in BWV 673 has a playful lilting quality, but again it is modal, unconventional, inventive and non-formulaic, even if governed throughout by aspects of the cantus firmus. The fughetta starts in the key of C major, modulating to D minor, then moving to A minor before the final cadence. Fluidity comes from the many passages with parallel thirds and sixths. Original features of the contrapuntal writing include the variety of entries of the subject (all notes of the scale except G), which occur in stretto and in canon. *BWV 674 Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist (Kyrie, O God the Holy Ghost) BWV 674 is a fughetta for four voices, 34 bars long, in compound time. The writing is again smooth, inventive and concise, moulded by the cantus firmus in E phrygian. The quaver motif in the third bar recurs throughout the movement, often in thirds and sixths, and is developed more than the quaver theme in the first bar. The constant quaver texture might be a reference to the last eleison in the plainchant. The movement starts in G major passing to A minor, then briefly C major, before moving back to A minor before the final cadence to an E major triad. As explains, “The so-called modality lies in a kind of diatonic ambiguity exemplified in the cadence, suggested by the key signature, and borne out in the kinds of lines and imitation.”

Allein Gott in der Höh’ BWV 675–677#

Bach’s three settings of the German Gloria/Trinity hymn Allein Gott in der Höh’ again make allusion to the Trinity: in the succession of keys—F, G and A—possibly echoed in the opening notes of the first setting BWV 675; in the time signatures; and in the number of bars allocated to various sections of movements. The three chorale preludes give three completely different treatments: the first a manualiter trio with the cantus firmus in the alto; the second a pedaliter trio sonata with hints of the cantus firmus in the pedal, similar in style to Bach’s six trio sonatas for organ BWV 525–530; and the last a three-part manualiter fughetta with themes derived from the first two lines of the melody. Earlier commentators considered some of the settings to be “not quite worthy” of their place in Clavier-Übung III, particularly the “much-maligned” BWV 675, which Hermann Keller considered could have been written during Bach’s period in Weimar. More recent commentators have confirmed that all three pieces conform to the general principles Bach adopted for the collection, in particular their unconventionality and the “strangeness” of the counterpoint. and have pointed out the possible influence of Bach’s contemporaries on his musical language. Bach was familiar with the eight versions of Allein Gott by his cousin Johann Gottfried Walther as well as the Harmonische Seelenlust of Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, posthumously printed by Bach’s Leipzig printer Krügner. In BWV 675 and 677 there are similarities with some of Kauffmann’s galant innovations: triplets against duplets in the former; and explicit articulation by detached quavers in the latter. The overall style of BWV 675 has been compared to Kauffmann’s setting of Nun ruhen alle Wälder; that of BWV 676 to the fifth of Walther’s own settings of Allein Gott; and BWV 677 has many details in common with Kauffmann’s fughetta on Wir glauben all an einen Gott. Below is the text of the four verses of Luther’s version of the Gloria with the English translation of Charles Sanford Terry: The movement is in bar form (AAB) with bar lengths of sections divisible by 3: the 18 bar stollen has 9 bars with and without the cantus firmus and the 30 bar abgesang has 12 bars with the cantus firmus and 18 without it. The invention theme provides a fore-imitation of the cantus firmus, subsuming the same notes and bar lengths as each corresponding phase. The additional motifs in the theme are ingeniously developed throughout the piece: the three rising starting notes; the three falling triplets in bar 2; the leaping octaves at the beginning of bar 3; and the quaver figure in bar 4. These are playfully combined in ever-changing ways with the two motifs from the counter subject—the triplet figure at the end of bar 5 and the semiquaver scale at the beginning of bar 6—and their inversions. At the end of each stollen and the abgesang, the complexity of the outer parts lessens, with simple triplet descending scale passages in the soprano and quavers in the bass. The harmonisation is similar to that in Bach’s Leipzig cantatas, with the keys shifting between major and minor. *BWV 676 Allein Gott in der Höh’ (All glory be to God on high) BWV 676 is a trio sonata for two keyboards and pedal, 126 bars long. The melody of the hymn is omnipresent in the cantus firmus, the paraphrase in the subject of the upper parts and in the harmony. The compositional style and detail—charming and galant—are similar to those of the trio sonatas for organ BWV 525–530. The chorale prelude is easy on the ear, belying its technical difficulty. It departs from the trio sonatas in having a ritornello form dictated by the lines of the cantus firmus, which in this case uses an earlier variant with the last line identical to the second. This feature and the length of the lines themselves account for the unusual length of BWV 676. The musical form of BWV 676 can be analysed as follows: * bars 1–33: exposition, with left hand following right and the first two lines of the cantus firmus in the left hand in bars 12 and 28. * bars 33–66: repeat of exposition, with right hand and left hand interchanged * bars 66–78: episode with syncopated sonata-like figures * bars 78–92: third and fourth lines of cantus firmus in canon between the pedal and each of the two hands, with a countertheme derived from trio subject in the other hand * bars 92–99: episode similar to passage in first exposition * bars 100–139: last line of cantus firmus in the left hand, then the right hand, the pedal and finally the right hand, before the final pedal point, over which the trio theme returns in the right hand against scale-like figures in the left hand, creating a somewhat inconclusive ending: *BWV 677 Allein Gott in der Höh’ (All glory be to God on high) BWV 677 is a double fughetta, 20 bars long. In the first five bars the first subject, based on the first line of the cantus firmus, and countersubject are heard in stretto, with a response in bars 5 to 7. The originality of the complex musical texture is created by pervasive but unobtrusive references to the cantus firmus and the smooth semiquaver motif from the first half of bar 3, which recurs throughout the piece and contrasts with the detached quavers of the first subject. The contrasting second subject, based on the second line of the cantus firmus, starts in the alto part on the last quaver of bar 7: The two subjects and the semiquaver motif are combined from bar 16 to the close. Examples of musical iconography include the minor triad in the opening subject and the descending scales in the first half of bar 16—references to the Trinity and the heavenly host.

Chorale preludes BWV 678–689 (Luther’s catechism chorales)#

Careful examination of the original manuscript has shown that the large scale chorale preludes with pedal, including those on the six catechism hymns, were the first to be engraved. The smaller manualiter settings of the catechism hymns and the four duets were added later in the remaining spaces, with the first five catechism hymns set as three-part fughettas and the last as a longer four-part fugue. It is possible that Bach, in order to increase the accessibility of the collection, conceived these additions as pieces that could be played on domestic keyboard instruments. Even for a single keyboard, however, they present difficulties: in the preface to his own collection of chorale preludes published in 1750, the organist and composer Georg Andreas Sorge wrote that, “the preludes on the catechism chorales of Herr Capellmeister Bach in Leipzig are examples of this kind of keyboard piece that deserve the great renown that they enjoy,” adding that “works such as these are so difficult as to be all but unusable to young beginners and others who lack the considerable proficiency they require”.

The Ten Commandments BWV 678, 679#

• BWV 678 Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot (These are the holy Ten Commandments) Below is the text of the first verse of Luther’s hymn with the English translation by Charles Sanford Terry: The prelude is in the mixolydian mode of G, ending on a plagal cadence in G minor. The ritornello is in the upper parts and bass on the upper manual and pedal, with the cantus firmus in canon at the octave on the lower manual. There are ritornello episodes and five entries of the Cantus firmus, yielding the number of commandments. The distribution of parts, two parts in each keyboard and one in the pedal is similar to that of the de Grigny Livre d’Orgue, although Bach makes much greater technical demands on the right hand part. Commentators have seen the canon as representing order, with the pun on canon as “law”. As also expressed in Luther’s verses, the two voices of the canon have been seen as symbolising the new law of Christ and the old law of Moses, which it echoes. The pastoral quality in the organ writing for the upper voices at the opening has been interpreted as representing the serenity before the Fall of Man; it is followed by the disorder of sinful waywardness; and finally order is restored in the closing bars with the calm of salvation. The upper part and pedal engage in an elaborate and highly developed fantasia based on motifs introduced in the ritornello at the beginning of the chorale prelude. These motifs recur either in their original form or inverted. There are six motifs in the upper part:
• the three crotchets at beginning of bar 1 above
• the dotted minim in the second part of bar 1 above
• the six note quaver figure in the two halves of bar 3 above
• the phrase of three semiquavers and two pairs of “sighing” quavers in bar 5 above
• the semiquaver passagework in the second half of bar 5 above
• the semiquaver passage work in the second half of the second bar below (first heard in bar 13) and five in the bass:
• the three crotchets at the beginning of bar 4 above
• the two crotchets dropping by an octave at the beginning of bar 5 above
• the phrase in the second part of bar 5 above
• the three note scale in the second, third and fourth crotchets of bar 6 above
• the last three crotchets in bar 7 above. The writing for the two upper voices is similar to that for obligato instruments in a cantata: their musical material is independent of the chorale, The opening pedal G on the other hand can be heard as a foretaste of the repeated Gs in the cantus firmus. In between the cantus firmus is sung in canon at the octave on the second manual. The fifth and final entry of the cantus firmus is in the distant key of B major (G minor): it expresses the purity of the Kyrie eleison at the end of the first verse, which brings the prelude to a harmonious close:
• BWV 679 Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot (These are the holy Ten Commandments) The lively gigue-like fughetta has several similarities to the larger chorale prelude: it is in the mixolydian mode of G; it starts with a pedal point of repeated Gs; the number ten occurs as the number of entries of the subject (four of them inverted); and the piece ends on a plagal cadence. The motifs in the second half of the second bar and the countersubject are extensively developed. The liveliness of the fughetta has been taken to reflect Luther’s exhortation in the Small Catechism to do “cheerfully what He has commanded.” Equally well, Psalm 119 speaks of “delighting … in His statutes” and rejoicing in the Law.

The Creed BWV 680, 681#

• BWV 680 Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott (We all believe in one God) Below is the text of the first verse of Luther’s hymn with the English translation by Charles Sanford Terry: The chorale prelude in four parts is a fugue in the Dorian mode of D, with the subject based on the first line of Luther’s hymn. The prominent counter-subject is first heard in the pedal bass. According to Peter Williams, the chorale prelude is written in the stilo antico Italian style reminiscent of Girolamo Frescobaldi and Giovanni Battista Bassani. Italian elements are apparent in the trio-sonata structure, which combines the upper fugal parts with the ostinato figured bass; and in the ingenious use of the full range of Italianate semiquaver motifs. The five notes in the original hymn for the opening melisma on Wir are expanded in the first two bars and the remaining notes are used for the countersubject. There is exceptionally no cantus firmus, probably because of the exceptional length of the hymn. Features of the remainder of the hymn, however, suffuse the writing, in particular the scale-like passages and the melodic leaps. The fugue counter-subject is adapted to the pedal as a vigorous striding bass with alternate footwork; its quasi-ostinato character has been consistently interpreted as representing a “firm faith in God”: a striding bass line was often used by Bach for Credo movements, for example in the Credo and Confiteor of the Mass in B Minor. After each occurrence of the ostinato counter-subject in the pedal, there is a semiquaver bridging passage (bars 8–9, 19–20, 31–32, 44–45, 64–66) in which the music modulates into a different key while the three upper parts play in invertible counterpoint: in this way the three different melodic lines can be freely interchanged between the three voices. These highly original transitional passages punctuate the work and give a coherence to the whole movement. Although the added G makes it difficult to recognize the chorale melody, it can be heard more clearly later on, singing out in the tenor part. In the final manualiter episode (bars 76–83) the ostinato pedal figures are taken up briefly by the tenor part before the movement draws to a close over a final extended restatement of the fugue counter-subject in the pedal. The American musicologist has described the chorale prelude as follows: “This energetic, syncopated counterpoint is elaborated above a recurring two-bar theme in the pedal that acts like a ritornello whose continual reappearances are separated by lengthy rests. The ostinato remains constant through the various key-changes that present it in both major and minor mode … The shape of the pedal line suggests an archetypal narrative of ascent and descent in perfect symmetry … The figure forcefully projects the movements of the feet into the church; heard on full organ (In Organo pleno, according to Bach’s own performance direction) with a registration of all due Gravitas, the feet move with real purpose … Wir glauben all’ is truly a walker’s piece at the organ.”
• BWV 681 Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott (We all believe in one God) The manualiter fughetta in E minor is both the shortest movement in Clavier-Übung III and the exact midpoint of the collection. The subject paraphrases the first line of the chorale; the two-bar passage later in the movement leading to two dramatic diminished seventh chords is constructed over the second chorale line. Although not strictly a French ouverture, the movement does incorporate elements of that style, in particular the dotted rhythms. Here Bach follows his custom of beginning the second half of a major collection with a French-style movement (as in the other three Clavier-Übung volumes, in both volumes of Das Wohltemperierte Clavier, in the early manuscript version of Die Kunst der Fuge and in the group of five numbered canons in the Musikalisches Opfer). It also complements the preceding chorale prelude by following an Italian style with a contrasting French one. Although still evidently written for organ, in style it most resembles the Gigue for harpsichord from the first French Suite in D minor BWV 812.

The Lord’s Prayer BWV 682, 683#

• BWV 682 Vater unser im Himmelreich (Our Father who art in heaven) Below is the text of the first verse of Luther’s hymn with the English translation by Charles Sanford Terry:
• BWV 683 Vater unser im Himmelreich (Our Father who art in heaven) The manualiter chorale prelude BWV 683 in the Dorian mode of D is similar in form to Bach’s earlier composition BWV 636 on the same subject from the Orgelbüchlein; the lack of a pedal part allows more freedom and integration of parts in the latter work. The cantus firmus is played without interruption in the uppermost part, accompanied by three-part counterpoint in the lower parts. The accompaniment uses two motifs: the five descending semiquavers in the first bar, derived from the fourth line of the chorale “und willst das beten von uns han” (and wishes us to pray); and the three quaver figure in the alto part in the second half of bar 5. The first motif is also inverted. The quiet and sweetly harmonious nature of the music is evocative of prayer and contemplation. Its intimate scale and orthodox style provide a complete contrast to the previous “larger” setting in BWV 682. At the beginning of each line of the chorale, the musical texture is pared down, with more voices added towards the end of the line: the long very first note of the chorale is unaccompanied. The prelude comes to a subdued conclusion in the lower registers of the keyboard.

Baptism BWV 684, 685#

• BWV 684 Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam (Christ our Lord to the Jordan came) Below is the text of the first and last verses of Luther’s hymn "" with the English translation by Charles Sanford Terry: Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam nach seines Vaters Willen, von Sanct Johann die Taufe nahm, sein Werk und Amt zu ‘rfüllen, Da wollt er stiften uns ein Bad, zu waschen uns von Sünden, ersaüfen auch den bittern Tod durch sein selbst Blut und Wunden; es galt ein neues Leben. Das Aug allein das Wasser sieht, wie Menschen Wasser gießen; der Glaub im Geist die Kraft versteht des Blutes Jesu Christi; und ist vor ihm ein rote Flut, von Christi Blut gefärbet, die allen Schaden heilen tut, von Adam her geerbet, auch von uns selbst begangen. To Jordan when our Lord had gone, His Father’s pleasure willing, He took His baptism of St John, His work and task fulfilling; Therein He would appoint a bath To wash us from defilement, And also drown that cruel Death In His blood of assoilment: ‘Twas no less than a new life. The eye but water doth behold, As from man’s hand it floweth; But inward faith the power untold Of Jesus Christ’s blood knoweth. Faith sees therein a red flood roll, With Christ’s blood dyed and blended, Which hurts of all kinds maketh whole, From Adam here descended, And by ourselves brought on us. The chorale prelude Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam BWV 684 has a trio sonata like ritornello in C minor in the three parts of the manuals with the cantus firmus in the tenor register of the pedal in the Dorian mode of C. Bach specifically stipulates two keyboards to give different sonorities to the imitative upper parts and the bass part. The undulating semiquavers in the bass, usually interpreted as representing the flowing waters of the Jordan, imitate a violine continuo, according to the model of Kauffmann’s Harmonische Seelenlust. The musical content of the ritornello contains explicit allusions to the melody of the chorale, sometimes hidden in the semiquaver passage work and motifs.
• BWV 685 Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam (Christ our Lord to the Jordan came) The manualiter chorale prelude BWV 685, despite being only 27 bars long and technically speaking a three-part fughetta, is a complex composition with dense fugal writing. The subject and countersubject are both derived from the first line of the cantus firmus. The compact style, imitative contrapuntal writing and sometimes capricious touches, such as repetition and the ambiguity in the number of parts, are features that BWV 685 shares with the shorter chorale preludes in Kauffmann’s Harmonische Seelenlust. The contrary motion between the parts in bar 9 harks back to the compositions of Samuel Scheidt. has given a precise analysis of the fughetta:
• bars 1–4: subject in soprano, countersubject in alto
• bars 5–7: subject inverted in bass, countersubject inverted in soprano, with a free alto part
• bars 8–10: episode derived from countersubject
• bars 11–14: subject in alto, countersubject in bass, with episode continuing against alto part
• bars 15–17: subject inverted in soprano, countersubject inverted in bass, with derived alto part
• bars 18–20: episode derived from countersubject
• bars 21–23: subject in bass, countersubject in soprano, with derived alto part
• bars 24–27: subject inverted in alto, countersubject inverted in soprano, with derived bass part There have been many attempts to interpret the musical iconography of BWV 685. Albert Schweitzer suggested that the subject and countersubject gave the visual impression of waves. Hermann Keller suggested that the three entries of the subject and countersubject, and the three inversions, represent the three immersions at baptism. Others have seen allusions to the Trinity in the three voices. The subject and countersubject have been seen as representing Luther’s baptismal themes of Old Adam and New Man. Whatever the intended symbolism, Bach’s most probable compositional aim was to produce a shorter chorale prelude contrasting musically with the preceding longer setting.

Confession BWV 686, 687#

• BWV 686 Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (Out of the depths I cry to Thee) Below is the text of the first and last verses of Luther’s hymn with the English translation by Charles Sanford Terry: German organ writing for double pedal () can be traced back to Arnolt Schlick and Ludwig Senfl in the 16th century; to Samuel Scheidt in two settings from his Tabulatura Nova in the early 17th century; and in the baroque period to Buxtehude, Reincken, Bruhns, Tunder, Weckmann and Lübeck. In France, among the composers to have written double pedal parts were François Couperin, in his organ Mass des paroisses, and Louis Marchand. The first verse of Luther’s hymn had already been set by Bach in the cantata Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38 (1724). The fact that the setting in BWV 686 flows more easily, has more countersubjects, has more novel features and has typically organ figurations in the final section has suggested that in this case the whole of Luther’s text was taken into account and that it is a purer version of the stile antico. Following the huge scale of the opening, Bach highly inventively incorporates motifs from the cantus firmus into the countersubjects of the seven sections (counting the repeat), resulting in a constantly changing musical texture. The widest range in pitch between upper and lower parts occurs exactly halfway through at bar 27. At the end of each line the cantus firmus is taken up in the left (lower) pedal, which, without break, then plays the countersubject while above the right (upper) pedal concludes the section by playing the cantus firmus in the tenor register in augmentation (i.e., with doubled note lengths). The proliferation of dactyl “joy” motifs (a crotchet followed by two quavers) in the last section of the prelude reflects the optimism in the last verse. has given the following analysis of the seven sections:
• first and third line: fugal section, with stretti in tenor and soprano manual voices at b.3 and in bass and soprano manual parts in b.9; countersubject with syncopation and crotchet figures
• second and fourth line: the rising three-note phrase or caput at the start of the melody occurs in minims or crotchets in all parts, all of which move stepwise (up or down to the nearest note); previous crotchet countersubject inverted
• fifth line: all parts except the manual bass have the melody; the syncopated countersubject involves either jumps, four-quaver figures or anapaests (two quavers followed by a crotchet)
• sixth line: melody only in alto and tenor manual and tenor and bass pedal parts; jumps in the countersubject break up the musical texture
• seventh line: melody in all parts in slightly modified form and with some inversion; animated dactyl and quaver figures in countersubject, adding more lively modern elements to the severe stile antico
• BWV 687 Aus tiefer Noth schrei’ ich zu dir (Out of the depths I cry to Thee) This smaller manualiter setting of Aus tiefer Noth schrei’ ich zu dir is a four-part chorale motet in the key of F minor, with the augmented cantus firmus in the phrygian mode of E in the uppermost soprano part. The strict contrapuntal writing is denser than that of BWV 686, although it adheres less to the stile antico and has a more uniform texture. Commentators have suggested that the continual responses to the fugue subjects by their inversion signify confession followed by forgiveness. has pointed out the following musical features in the seven sections of BWV 687:
• in each section, the fugue subject in quavers is derived from elements of the corresponding cantus firmus; it is answered by inversions of the subject in stretto
• in each section, there are five bars with alto, tenor and bass in counterpoint, followed by eight bars of the soprano cantus firmus in minims and ending with a one bar cadence
• as each cantus firmus episode progresses, the accompanying lower parts move in a more animated way