As organist at Weimar, Johann Sebastian Bach was
charged with providing a harmonic underpinning for the
singing of Lutheran chorale tunes chosen for each day.
Bach wrote out many of these harmonizations, in part as
instruction for younger composers (they are still used
for this purpose). A derivation of this practice,
Bach's conception of the organ chorale, as manifested
in the chorale preludes, dates from 1713 -1714, about
the time he became familiar with Vivaldi's
concertos.
In all his chorale arrangements, Bach took inspiration
for the style and atmosphere from the words of the hymn
on which his composition was based. But the main role
in his chorale partitas seems to be given to pure
pleasure in playing and inventiveness. For his
variations on ‘Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig’, he literally
pulls out all the stops. For over twenty minutes, he
explores the harmonic, rhythmic and stylistic
possibilities of the melody forming the base of the
piece. The art of variation was already considered
old-fashioned in Bach’s day. But Georg Böhm, the organ
virtuoso with whom the fifteen-year-old Bach became
acquainted during his schooldays in Lüneburg, was a
master of variation. Through Böhm, Bach also came into
contact with Reincken, and through him with Buxtehude,
who were both composers with a flair for the art of
variation. There was much that Bach could learn from
these masters, but the challenge of variation must have
held particular appeal for the young composer. It was
not just conceiving of the most varied and
sophisticated series possible, but also the virtuoso
interpretation of that series that provided the
opportunity of rivalling his idols.
The chorale partita (BWV 766-770) is a special form of
chorale arrangement, as the chorale (or hymn) serves as
the starting point for a series of variations. The art
of variation was at its peak in the seventeenth
century. Usually, a folk song was taken as the starting
point for a series of variations that increased in
difficulty and speed. The genre was not restricted to
keyboard instruments. The blind Dutch recorder and
carillon player Jacob van Eyck was also a master in the
art, for example. The five compositions by Bach bearing
the name of chorale partita do not come from a single
source, nor are they dated, but it is supposed that
they originated in his teens and may have been revised
later on.
The Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich
her" ("From Heaven above to Earth I come"), BWV 769,
are a set of five variations in canon for organ with
two manuals and pedals by Johann Sebastian Bach on the
Christmas hymn by Martin Luther of the same name. The
variations were prepared as a showpiece for Bach's
entry as fourteenth member of Mizler's Music Society in
Leipzig in 1747. The original printed edition of 1747,
in which only one line of the canon was marked in the
first three variations, was published by Balthasar
Schmid in Nuremberg. Another version BWV 769a appears
in the later autograph manuscript P 271, which also
contains the six trio sonatas for organ BWV 525–530 and
the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes BWV 651–668. In
this later version Bach modified the order of the
variations, moving the fifth variation into a central
position, and wrote out all the parts in full, with
some minor revisions to the score.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonic_Variations_on_%2
2Vom_Himmel_hoch_da_komm%27_ich_her%22).
Although originally written for Pipe Organ, I created
this Interpretation of the L'altra Sorte del'Canone
all'rovercio (Canon with Inversions) Variation V (BWV
769 No. 5) from "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her"
(From Heaven above to Earth I come) for Oboe & Concert
(Pedal) Harp. |
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