The greatest playing is done as much between as on the notes. - Ralph Kirkpatrick
2005, March 31
Snow, by Louis MacNeice
Snow, a poem by Louis MacNeice, 1907-1963
The room was suddenly rich and the great bay window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.
World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkeness of things being various.
And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes-
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands-
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.
Schübler chorale 1, BWV 645
A look at a well known chorale: Wake, Awake for Night is Passing (Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme)
Bach chose a group of chorale arias from cantatas and transcribed them for organ; they were engraved and published by Johann Georg Schübler. They include BWV 645 through 650.
The first Schübler chorale, BWV 645, is based on the melody Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, by Philipp Nicolai. It is a composite melody, with elements from plainchant, a tune by Hans Sachs and the German Agnus Dei.
This organ chorale is an E-flat major trio, with the chorale in the left hand. This chorale is associated with the 27th Sunday after Trinity, which is the last Sunday before Advent.
| The music: | BWV 645 | Organ transcription of BWV 140.4, with the bass of the continuo in the pedal, no realization of the figures | |
| BWV 140.1 | A chorale fantasia with SATB, violin, viola, continuo | ||
| BWV 140.4 | A tenor aria with continuo with figured bass, and a violin obligato. | ||
| BWV 140.7 | A four part harmonization of the chorale melody. |
MP3 files of these chorales are available. If you want one, leave me a note in a comment with your email address and I will send it. Unfortunately, the files are too large to put them on my ftp server for general distribution.
Some names under which this chorale is known:
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
Wake, awake for night is passing
Wake, awake, for night is flying
Discussion from the Bach Cantatas website
Discussion from the website of Emmanuel Music of Boston
Cantata No. 140
by Johann Sebastian Bach, Gerhard Herz (Editor), Norton Critical Scores 1972
The Organ Music of J.S. Bach, 2nd ed.
Peter Williams, Cambridge University Press 2003
A New Venture
March 31, 2005 is the ninth anniversary of the first appearance of http://www.jsbchorales.net.
To celebrate the ninth anniversary of JSB Chorales.net, here is the JSB Workshop, where I will offer short descriptions of some chorales, have some fun and share a few thoughts about life in general, probably about once or twice a week. Enjoy!
