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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