1) The Little Organ Book, composed at Cothen between 1717 and 1725 and intended for "the beginning organist who has need of examples for the performance of all kinds of chorals, and for the development of ability in the study of the pedal". It includes forty-five chorals, generally somewhat short ones, classed according to the order of the liturgical year.
2) The twenty-one Chorals published in 1739 by their composer, in the third part of the "Clavierubung (keyboard exercises), containing various preludes on the tunes of the Catechism and other tunes, for organ".
3) The so-called "Leipzig Chorals", pieces of various dates which were published after Bach's death by his son-in-law, Altnikol.
4) The six Chorals (transcriptions of Cantata airs) published in 1746, and the Variations on a Christmas Carol published in 1747, which makes up a total of ninety-one Chorals.
The approximately sixty-nine othrs [sic] (since many are of doubtful authenticity) make up a kind of reliquary of diverse pieces which seem to be youthful works and fantasies . . . a whole corpus of music which Bach did not think should be included in the collections described above.
[4] In the following commentary we shall not concern ourselves with the historical or technical study of the Bach Chorals. This has been done many times already. Beginning with the facts given by Spitta, Schweitzer, Pirro, Dufourcq and others, however, it may not be entirely amiss to emphasize somewhat the properly religious aspect of the hymn-paraphrases, taken for the most part from the psalms and hymns of the Church, determine their meaning, and in this way discover the relationships which they maintain, sometimes with the letter and more often with the spirit of certain Gregorian melodies which are sung on the principal feasts of the Liturgical Year.
I. Expectation of the Saviour [sic] of Mankind
We know that the forty-five Chorals of the Little Organ Book were arranged by Bach himself according to the order of the liturgical seasons. This order, abandoned by the older Peters editions, was fortunately restored in more recent classical editions. We shall continually cite that of Marcel Dupre, published by Bornemann's of Paris (D.B.).
The collection opens with a prelude on Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (D.B., Book VII, No. 1). It is short, but full of grandeur. The counterpoint is rich, severe in some places, and it rises up like the ringing of solemn bells. The choral-tune is in the upper part, considerably altered and fitted to the rhythm of the rest. A person familiar with the Monastic Antiphonary will not, however, have any difficulty in recognizing the melody which the Benedictine Order sings during Christmastide at the hymn for the Little Hours:
Actually, we have here an adaptation in the present Office of a melody which the manuscripts assign to the hymn Veni [5]
Redemptor Gentium, the text of which goes back to the fourth century, since its attribution to Saint Ambrose (340-397) is solidly established. Dom Gueranger gave the Latin text of it in his Annee Liturgique, together with a French translation, for the fourth Wednesday of Advent, presenting it as a "hymn of preparation for Christmas".
In fact, for many centuries this hymn was sung at First Vespers of Christmas, and it was not until 1568 that, with the reform of the Roman Breviary ordered by St. Pius, this Veni Redemptor Gentium disappeared from liturgical use. The Milanese Church, at least, still keeps it and still sings it at the Lucernarium of First Vespers of the Nativity of Our Lord.
Even during the Middle Ages this hymn was translated into vernacular languages, particularly in Germany, where we find it to have been in wide use with a number of variants. During the same period, the original melody underwent changes of melodic and rhythmic nature so that the translation of the hymn by Luther at the beginning of the sixteenth century and the choral to which it was sung from that time on, far from being a "creation", represent, on the contrary, the result of a long and slow evolution.
The liturgical reform of St. Pius V, then, had this paradoxical result, that the hymn of St. Ambrose, henceforth ignored in Catholic countries, came to meet with good fortune in Germany. Protestant organists, in fact, were supposed to paraphrase the hymn tune before it was to be sung by the congregation. Fritz Munger gives a very full list of these Preludes: Choralbearbeitungen fur Orgel, Barenreiter Verlag, 1952, p. 101-102, and the magazine Orgue et Liturgie (No. 19, Paris, 1953), has made a number of them available to us, from Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) to Wilhelm-Friedemann Bach (1710-1784).
[6] The melody set by Praetorius, Scheidt (1624) and their contemporaries takes the following form:
We see that in spite of two hesitant alterations, this theme remains very faithful to the original melody. In contrapuntal developments, however, the laws of tonality become more and more demanding. A characteristic example of these compromises between the older modality and classic tonality is found in the five verses of Scheidt on the Hymn de Adventu Domini. The first and fourth fragments of the tune, altered in verses one, three and four, return, in the soprano of the second verse and the bass of the fifth, to the regular form of the older melody.
With the second half of the seventeenth century, however, we usually find the melody to be more ornate:
Adopted and harmonized in four parts by Scheidt in his Tablaturbuch of 1650, it has often been ornamented, particularly by Nikolaus Bruhns (1665-1697) [,] Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748), etc. . . .
These chorals merit more than a simple mention, but we must now return to those of Johann Sebastian Bach.
[7] It has been often said that Bach occupies a central position in the history of music. With an extraordinary capacity for work, he was able to summarize and bring to perfection a long tradition inherited from the musicians of western Europe (Northern Germany, Central Germany, Italy, France, etc. . . .), but he was a man who perceived the musical problems of his time and who oriented the entire future of his art. With him, in fact, equal temperament became solidly established, and tonality became a dominant element. We have an example of this orientation in the way in which he treated the choral Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.
On this theme Bach wrote two cantatas (Nos. 61 and 62), five Chorals for organ, a Fuguetta (or rather a piece "in fugue" on the first phrase of the choral tune) which probably belongs to the group of youthful works (D.B., Book XII, No. 8), the Choral already mentioned in the Little Organ Book [sic] VII, No. 1), [sic] and the three great Chorals of the Leipzig collection (D.B., Book IX, Nos. 9, 10, and 11).
In the little fugue and in the Cothen Choral, Bach is still faithful to the melody as used by Buxtehude, Pachelbel or Walther, but in the cantatas and Leipzig chorals, he changes the intonation in such a way that the melody is now based on the key of G minor:
On this "alteration of a single note" Andre Pirro has written some eloquent pages. For him it is not merely "because of the simple turn of the modulations" that Bach chose this "characteristic variant". "We may be permitted, on the contrary, to see here that by utilizing this change of the basic tune in his composition, he sensed that it was possible [8] to bring a more profound interpretation to this Advent hymn."
"Although the poetry invokes the coming of the Saviour [sic] of the Gentiles, the music seems to predict even from this time, by this phrase of pathos, the sufferings which await Him among men and the death which He must undergo. It is a characteristic of Bach's religion to feel a need to express both Christ's birth, which is the beginning of his redeeming work, and His death on the cross, which marks the achievement of His mission". This is a fine thought, but does it correspond with the hidden intention of the composer? Does not this smack of over-systematization? This seems more in question, too, as Bach was not the first to have used this particular alteration. We find proof of this in the Choral of Bruhns we have just cited.
Moreover, if it be proved that by using this altered interval Bach sought "to bring Calvary into the aspects of the cradle from the very outset", he would still have been merely expressing in music a doctrine expounded frequently by the Fathers of the Church, particularly by Leo the Great, who, on Christmas day, seeks to contemplate in this "nova nativitas" the beginning of our redemption. Then, too, does not St. Ambrose take the same perspectives in verses five and six of the Veni Redemptor Gentium? "Having proceded from the Father, He returns to the Father; having descended into Hell, He now takes His place on the throne of God" . . . "Co-eternal Son, equal to the Father, triumph over our mortal flesh; by Thine immutable Power, strengthen our weak natures".
Regardless of all this, what is undeniably clear in listening to the three Leipzig Chorals is the nobility and grandeur of the style, as well as the amplitude of the figurations.
This characteristic of noble style is noticeable even in the eleventh Choral [BWV 661], which from a chronological point of view, seems earlier than the other two. Structurally speaking, it merely carries out a principle which was a favorite of [9] Pachelbel, which consists of preparing each entry of the choral tune with imitative passages in diminished values. Here, however, the counterpoint is more vigorous. It calls for the ensemble of foundation stops and mixtures of the organ, whereas each phrase of the theme appears in the pedal, enriched by the addition of reeds. This Chorale-Prelude is most effective when played in a somewhat moving tempo, although not to the point of precipitation, while one should take care to rpeserve strictly the inexorable rhythm which flows through the whole piece.
Choral No. 10 [BWV 660] of the same collection is rarely performed by organists. It deserves, however, a better fate. Perhaps the reason for its lesser popularity is the disconcerting aspect, at first glance, of a rarely used disposition of the parts. Two parts, one in the pedal and the other in the manual, cross and interplay in a continuous and close dialogue. A third part enters periodically to assert the choral tune at the octave, but in a greatly extended and ornamented form. This trio form obliges one to forego the habitual 16 foot pedal, as the two crossing parts must be sounded in the same register, although with two different timbres. We no longer have the brilliance and amplitude of sound found up to this point (D.B., VII, No. 1, and IX, No. 2). This movement is more tranquil, the parts become more discreet, and the choral rises up like an earnest prayer, almost in sadness, to the sole Saviour [sic] of the world.
This interpretation of the Advent Choral attains its fullness in Prelude No. 9 [BWV 659] of this Leipzig set (D.B., IX, No. 9). This is the masterpeice of all the preludes on Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland and one of the summits of the whole corpus of organ Chorals.
Over a steady and solemn bass, the middle voices do not merely prepare the entries of the tune with imitations and ornaments in conformity with usual practice. They also "sing" in a markedly more flexible movement than that of the bass, and their interest grows continually. Note in particular the measures just before the final entry of the tune. [10] Finally, in the upper voice the melody of the choral soars up with supreme tranquility, ornamented with arabesques in very pure and peaceful lines like the upsurge of a prayer.
Such a happy result is not exceptional in the immense output of Johann Sebastian Bach. We could mention a number of others, and each would be a revelation of the extent of his musical genius, and still more of the quality of his soul. Bach held a vigorous faith, as nobody would seriously be able to deny, but there is more to it than that. He must be numbered among those who "know what it is to wait in expectation", who desire and anticipate the return of their Master.
These masterpieces have within them something of mystery, and these few commentaries cannot pretend to have clarified this point. They aid us, however, in better understanding why these Chorals do not seem out-of-place in the plan of the Advent liturgy. Technically we are far from the early melody and its flexible and lively rhythm and the resonance of the second Gregorian mode. Nevertheless, deeper affinities remain, for experience has proved that at First Vespers of Christmas, this music well fits the spiritual atmosphere produced by this wonderful Office. As early as the fourth century, this vulnerable hymn which we have examined evoked it with simplicity and grandeur:
Come, Redeemer of all Peoples;
Be known as the Son of the Virgin;
Let the whole world be amazed;
Such a birth is due to a God.
Even now Thy cradle brightly shines;
In the night a new light has glowed forth;
No darkness can obscure it;
It is the permanent splendor of faith!
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Source: Dom Antoine Bonnet, "The Liturgical Year in the Organ Chorals of Johann Sebastian Bach," The Gregorian Review 3, no. 1 (January-February 1956): 3–10.
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