J S Bach chorale preludes

[stephen w]

I'm beginning to play JS Bach chorale preludes on the organ. Does anyone have favourite recorded versions please? I like to get a couple of versions to absorb different approaches to interpretation.

[Philidor]

There's a fair bit of Peter Hurford playing chorale preludes posted on Youtube by tHEnOOSEsWINGS.




I know little about Bach organ interpretation so don't know if it's any good or not. Hurford is supposed to be an authority on authentic Bach. It sounds clunky and reedy to me, with sudden drastic rubato and fluffed ornaments, but maybe that's right.



Peter Hurford OBE

As it should be played...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qccBF1beTmY"]YouTube - Hand-pumped organ[/ame]

[Florestan]

thenooseswings has got a brilliant youtube channel. I tried to befriend them but I don't think they accepted. I did subscribe, though.

They've got a fantastic Paul Klee painting as their channel background.

[Herzeleide]

Andre Isoir's complete organ works of Bach is the best.

[stephen w]

Thankyou for Peter Hurford and Andre Isoir. Ive not heard of Isoir, that will be interesting.

[Dimitris]

I am wondering if that choral preludes related in a way or another with "371 vierstimmige Chorale" J.S.Bach

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by Dimitris

I am wondering if that choral preludes related in a way or another with "371 vierstimmige Chorale" J.S.Bach

Yes. The organ chorale prelude would preceed the singing of the chorale in the Lutheran service, to get the congregation in the mood! The '371 vierstimmige Chorale' (which British school children still use in music lessons - I did) is the collection of almost all JS Bach's chorales from the Passions and Cantatas (plus some from lost works, e.g. the St Mark's Passion) published by CPE Bach in c. 1780, partly as a teaching aid.

C.P.E. Bach wrote in 1775: 'His (JS Bach's) pupils had to begin by learning four part thoroughbass. After that he went on with them to chorales; first he used to write the bass himself, then they had to invent the alto and tenor for themselves... this way of leading up to chorales is indisputably the best way of learning composition, including harmony'."

The posthumously published collections (Birnstiel, 2 vols., 1765, 1769; Breitkopf, 4 vols., 1784-7) contain almost all the chorales known from Bach's vocal works, some under different titles. The Breitkopf edition, prepared by C.P.E. Bach and Kirnberger, contains 371 chorales, among them more than 100 not found in the extant vocal works. This provides an important pointer to the lost vocal music, and though extremely difficult to follow up it has borne some fruits, as in the reconstruction of the St. Mark Passion or the Picander cycle. It is worth remarking that the number of excess chorales, that is those that cannot be assigned to extant works, more or less corresponds to the number thought to exist in the lost cantatas and Passions." (Grove online)

[Dimitris]

I assume that in a modern school and with modern way of teaching
the "371 chorals" book is too much for the level that is requested

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by Dimitris

I assume that in a modern school and with modern way of teaching
the "371 chorals" book is too much for the level that is requested

It still happens in British schools. Here's a group of students agonizing over parralel 5ths and second inversions! I was made to do it age 14.

Re: AS Music - Bach Chorales Compositional Techniques
Originally Posted by Fletch
For preference double the root; if you have to, double the fifth; DON'T DOUBLE THE THIRD! (although you can get away with it in a minor triad.)

Bach doubles the third frequently in his chorales (in major as well as minor chords). It is preferably handled by approaching the and quitting the thirds in contrary motion.
However, from what I've been told by our harmony lecturers, you may be marked wrong if you double the third for a-level/ as-level work, since the exam authorities know bugger all.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=535220

[Herzeleide]

That's probably true about A-level examiners.

The only adamantine rule for doubling notes is don't double the tendency notes - the leading note and the fourth when it appears as the seventh of the dominant chord.

The 371 is the Bible of harmony (and elementary counterpoint); they're microcosmic masterpieces, demonstrating with supreme competence in a few bars what happens over large stretches of time in other pieces.