Bach on Willis at St Mary's Ewell 'Dorian 'Toccata and Fugue plus 3 Clavierubung Preludes
🎞️ · 09.04.2024 · 19:38:16 ··· Dienstag ⭐ 5 🎬 54
📺 Jonathan Holmes
🎬 · 09.04.2024 · 19:38:16 ··· Dienstag
😎 · 03.07.2024 · 17:56:47 ··· MiTTwoch
Bach Tuesday 1.05pm April 9th St Mary’s Ewell
Jonathan Holmes plays J S Bach
The ‘Dorian’ Toccata and Fugue BWV 538
Chorale Preludes from ‘Clavierubung part 3’
Vater unser im Himmelreich a 2 Klavier e pedal a canto fermo in canone BWV 682
Dies sind dei heiligen zehen Gebot (Manualiter) BWV 679
Kyrie, Gott heiliger geist (Pro Organo Pleno) BWV 671)
Programme Notes
The ‘Dorian’ Prelude and Fugue BWV 538
The epithet 'Dorian' appears for the first time in a Peters publication from 1845, probably because the work is notated in D minor (with one flat) with no key signature, like the Dorian mode.
‘Music like three-dimensional chess’
One probably should listen to this toccata and fugue a few times, as it is extremely complex music that is difficult to take in all at once. Yet the key here is frugality, as Bach manages to spin out a few simple motifs over two breathtaking constructions. And although the movements of this ‘power couple’ were probably not written at the same time, they fit together perfectly.
The toccata is a model of rhetoric, wrapped up in a perpetuum mobile of semiquavers. The opening motif is presented, commented on, confirmed, rearranged and reconfirmed, etc. Each musical gesture is derived from that single motif, which in itself is a wonderful achievement. Bach adds extra contrast through a lively dialogue between the great organ and the choir organ. And finally, to optimise the balance, short passages with ‘tense’ chords are consistently followed by stretches of brighter music.
The fugue, too, puts layer upon layer. The theme begins simply, although the second bar already sees a shift in rhythm and the start of the upward leaps, which lead later on to some very exciting combinations. There are two counter-themes (one of which resembles the toccata motif briefly), both of which are unbroken and overlap the theme perfectly, so that the piece never unwinds. After the first use of the pedal, the fugue feels its way forwards as Bach introduces his melodies in canon, first between the bass and the soprano, and then in three middle voices, until the threads can barely be disentangled. The end of the fugue breaks through the intoxicating interplay of lines and refers back pointedly to the toccata with sharp question-and-answer chords.
Vater unser im Himmelreich a 2 Klavier e pedal a canto fermo in canone BWV 682
Bach applied the latest novelties from abroad in illustrating Luther’s serious message.
This chorale arrangement requires a large organ with two manuals (keyboards) and pedal. The two melodic voices and bass part create the form of a trio sonata. The original song melody is embellished to such an extent that it is practically unrecognisable. But these decorations borrowed from French Baroque music do not provide cheerfulness. Against a ground of persistent bass notes, two additional voices grip one another in a canonic stranglehold, suggesting the seriousness of the prayer’s message.
Luther’s text, consisting of nine six-line couplets prayer holds forth on the concepts of suffering, guilt, patience and obedience. The succession of laboriously hiccupping figures and chromatic motifs ensured that eighteenth-century congregations did not lose sight of this underlying meaning. However, the fact that Bach also made an incredibly difficult composition of it, using all the latest novelties from abroad, would have given music-lovers satisfaction at the same time.
Dies sind dei heiligen zehen Gebot (Manualiter) BWV 679
“I will delight in your decrees”, go the words of Psalm 119 verse 16. These decrees are, of course, the Ten Commandments, and the catechism states that it is an obligation to follow them joyfully. So it comes as no surprise that Bach wrote an extremely lively prelude in order to emphasise the happiness behind the actually very serious theme.
Kyrie, Gott heiliger geist (Pro Organo Pleno) BWV 671)
BWV 671 is the third part of the Kyrie representing God the Holy Spirit.
Luther wrote his Kyrie between 1525 and 1537. The melody is an adaptation of a much older Gregorian melody. It is in the Phrygian mode (an ecclesiastical mode beginning on E), the most heart-rending of all the ecclesiastical keys – which befits the words of the piece: Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy). From the seventeenth century onward, organists started to arrange this melody, as they did with other Lutheran hymns as well. As in the rest of the Clavier-Übung, Bach follows this tradition here, too.
The mediaeval melody of the hymn can be heard in long note values in the pedal. Above that, both hands of the organist weave a four-part fugue. This fugue is clear and lively in general – a strong contrast to the dark melody of the original. It is only towards the ending, as the final cadence approaches, that the music becomes darker. Maybe Bach wanted to express the eleison (have mercy on us) musically through this heart-rending chromaticism. Bach brings together centuries of music in this monumental work
· 09.04.2024 · 19:38:16 ··· Dienstag
U
U
L
L
T
* 1712684296
* 1712684296
X 54
Y 5
P
C 16383
B 7
V 76
* · 25.06.2022 · 00:00:00 ···
2 · 26.05.2023 · 08:07:33 ···
L · 03.07.2024 · 17:56:42 ···
C · 03.07.2024 · 17:56:47 ···
💘 🖱️ * · 01.01.1970 · 01:00:00 ···
* · 01.01.1970 · 01:00:00 ···
· 01.01.1970 · 01:00:00 ···
**##
*** · 01.01.1970 · 01:00:00 ··· ::
*2* · 01.01.1970 · 01:00:00 ··· ::
*L* · 01.01.1970 · 01:00:00 ··· ::
*C* · 01.01.1970 · 01:00:00 ··· ::
********
