J. S. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein (BWV 599–644) is a collection of short organ pieces that he composed over several decades from 1704 onwards. Bach’s idea was to assemble 164 works in a variety of styles, all based on pre-existing Lutheran hymn-tunes, and arranged according to the Church’s calendar. The collection would serve Bach not only in church services but also in his teaching. Alas, the project remained incomplete at the composer’s death.
Bach arranged the collection by hymn-text themes as follows:
– Advent: BWV 599–602 | – Christmas: BWV 603–612 | – New Year: BWV613–615 | – Purification: BWV 616–617 | – Passiontide: BWV 618–624 | – Easter: BWV 625–630 | – Pentecost: BWV 631–634 | – Catechism: BWV 635–638 | – General: BWV 639–644
- Playlist: Click on a title to start listening
- Useful reading
– Jon Laukvik. Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing. Vol.1: The Baroque and Classical Periods. (Stuttgart: Carus, 1996).
– Peter Williams. The Organ Music of J. S. Bach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
– John Scott Whiteley ‘Hermeneutics surrounding the Orgelbüchlein’ “RCO Journal” (Volume 11, 2017) 5-30. - Technical notes.
– Edition: Johann Sebastian Bach Orgelbüchlein. (Ed. Heinz-Harald Lohlein) Series: Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke. IV/i. BA5171. (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1984, repr. 1997)
– Temperament: Werckmeister III; pitch A=440
– Organ: Viscount Sonus 60
– Microphone: Zoom Q2N-4K
– Recordings: ©Andrew Pink. All rights reserved.
Creative Commons licence: [Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International]
– I made these recordings during the UK’s various Covid-related restrictions of 2020–22. For some of my other lockdown recordings go to: ‘Exordia ad missam’: my lockdown recordings.
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