Welcome to my blog.
This Liturgical Year (2013-2014) I have
decided to blog the Orgelbüchlein. I hope in this way to encourage
myself to learn the chorales that I did not have a chance to study
while getting my degrees and to learn more about the chorales that I
do know. I hope also to become more comfortable in reading German in
the process and exercise my writing skills, which I seldom use
anymore.
I was first introduced to this volume
by my organ professor when I was a freshman in college. After I
finished the Eight Little Preludes and Fugues, he asked me to learn
“Christ lag in Todesbanden,” “Vater unser,” and “Ich ruf zu
dir” and, of course, I did. I wish that I could say that at the
time I saw the value in what I was doing,but,as is so often the case,
I only started to realize just what gems these little pieces are
later.
Fortunately for me, during the summer
between my freshman and sophomore years, I discovered that the bass
line of "Herr Christ, der einge Gottes-Sohn" contained a
figure I had also played in a piece by Buxtehude. Intrigued, I
learned the piece and, probably because it was a piece to be played
on full organ, it appealed to my 19 year old self. A few months
later, I had the opportunity to play "Christ lag in Todesbanden"
in a master class for Robert Clark, who had edited the Concordia
Orgelbüchlein. At that point, I was beginning to wonder what else
might be in this volume.
A decade has past since I began to
wonder. I finished my bachelor's degree, went on for a master's,
married someone who had decided that his wedding recessional would be
"In dir ist Freude" long before he met me, and found myself
playing in a Lutheran church where many of the tunes Bach set in this
collection are still sung. What tunes do I regularly play that Bach
set in this volume? What theological meanings to the motives have?
What tunes are no longer familiar? Are the texts I know the same ones
Bach used? This year I will attempt to discover the answers to these
questions and more. I hope you will join me.
St. Andrew's day, 2013
