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Fruhauf Music Publications
A Baroque Sampler
Transcriptions and Editions for Organ
Volume I
(27 pages)
Johann Sebastian Bach
.pdf [Ornamented cantus firmus] (3 pages)"Alle Menschen müssen sterben"
No. 44, S. 643 from Orgelbüchlein
"Bist du bei mir" [Trio] .pdf (3 pages)
Aria, S. 508 from Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach (1725)
"Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott" [Ornamented cantus firmus] .pdf (3 pages)
(S. 721, from Ludwig Busbetzky, a pupil of Buxtehude)
"Jesu bleibet meine Freude," .pdf (4 pages)
Chorale from Cantata 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben
Largo .pdf (2 pages)
from Clavier-Concert in F minor, S. 1056
"Nun danket alle Gott" .pdf (3 pages)
Chorale from Cantata 79, Gott, der Herr, ist Sonn und Schild
Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, S. 582: Cadenza (1 page)
(14 measures for insertion at measure 117 of the Fugue)
"Schafe können sicher weiden" .pdf (4 pages)
Aria from Cantata 208, Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!
Sinfonia .pdf (2 pages)
from Cantata 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit
"Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her" .pdf (2 pages)
Chorale from The Christmas Oratorio, S. 248)
Notes
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Eisenach of a musical family and gained early prominence as an organist and composer. His sphere of activity was restricted to a relatively tight area in what is now central eastern Germany. His early career focused on church positions, followed by two subsequent appointments to royal courts that fostered the production of secular music. In 1723 he was appointed Kantor of the Thomasschule and Director musices for the town of Leipzig, with responsibility for the music of the Thomaskirche and its associated parishes. In this role his musical skills and production flourished up to the end of his life in 1750.
Bach’s setting of the chorale, "Alle Menschen müssen sterben," S. 643, appears here, freely edited and transformed into an improvisatorially ornamented version, similar to several other of his highly figured chorale preludes that are included in the Orgelbüchlein and elsewhere. "Bist du bei mir," S. 508 from Bach’s Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach, is presented with an added contrapuntal voice in the soprano register, sounding in duet with the melody of Bach’s original aria. It can be performed as an organ trio (with the bass line in the pedal), or by an ensemble that includes a soprano soloist and a treble instrument (flute, violin, or oboe, for example), with the bass line rendered on the organ or in ensemble with a gamba or cello.The chorale prelude on "Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott" (S. 721) would appear to be a transcription of a soprano aria from a cantata by Ludwig Busbetzky, a pupil of Dietrich Buxtehude. Bach’s original version presents the chorale melody in unornamented quarter notes, accompanied by repeated eighth-note chords in the left hand and pedal line. The present edition offers a possible ornamented realization, in keeping with the florid coloratura style of numerous of his more introspective and slower paced chorale preludes.
"Jesu bleibet meine Freude," from Cantata 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, is a perennial favorite in the repertoire and is transcribed here as a version in which the cantus firmus is presented in the four-voice texture of a traditional vocal chorale, with the flowing line of the first violins notated for a solo register. Interpretive phrasings have been added to the bass line.
The Largo from Bach’s Clavier-Concert in F minor, S. 1056, is one of numerous movements from Bach’s instrumental ensemble music that have found their way into the familiar repertoire of his most beloved transcriptions. Another form of the same composition exists as the Sinfonia from Cantata 156, Ich steh mit einem Fu
ß im Grabe. The present edition has adopted the key and bass line of the latter source, combined with the intricately embellished melodic line from the concerto version. Both sources end with cadences that anticipate the movements to follow (the Largo with a deceptive half cadence, and the Sinfonia with a half cadence). Two authentic cadences have been provided instead, a relatively simple one, as well as a more highly embellished alternative ending.The setting of "Nun danket alle Gott" presents the familiar chorale melody attributed to Johann Krüger, as it appears in Cantata No. 79, Gott, der Herr, ist Sonn und Schild. The four-part chorale sung by the choir is presented in multiple voices on a distinctive solo registration and is contrasted by the heraldic fanfares of the accompanimental figures.
Once again in the improvisatorial spirit, a cadenza has been included in this collection to be used as an embellishment to Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, S. 582. It is 14 measures in length and intended for insertion at measure 117 of the fugue.
The da capo aria, "Schafe k
önnen sicher weiden" is another familiar cantata movement, from the so-called ‘Hunt’ or ‘Birthday’ Cantata, Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd! (No. 208), which celebrates the birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels. In this transcription, the soprano solo is relocated to the tenor line in order to accommodate the delicate recorder duet sounding in the upper registers.The Sinfonia from Cantata 109, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, is an approximate adaptation that presents Bach’s original duet for two recorders, string accompaniment and bass line, as an organ solo. The arrangement offers an opportunity to display the delicate flute stops of an organ. While the blurred notes of the duet’s tight texture seem awkward on the keyboard, the resulting effect can capture the essence of the overlapping counterpoint of Bach’s original notation.
The chorale melody associated with the text, "Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her" appears in the Christmas Oratorio. The Weinachtsoratorium (S. 248) is a collection of six parts (or ‘cantatas,’ loosely speaking), and the ninth movement of the first part presents the familiar hymn tune with the text, "Ach mein herzliebes Jesulein!" Once again, the chorale is sounded in four voices and contrasted by accompanimental fanfares.
Copyright © 2004 Ennis Fruhauf
All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Ennis Fruhauf.
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