Ach wie elend ist unsre Zeit
I've been especially interested in the chorale prelude lately. This is due in part to two simultaneous projects: Working with Annie Laver to program our Organ Recital for January, 2022; and working on Sonoma Bach's
'Adventures in Sight-Singing' class, which I'm co-teaching with Shawna Hervé.
As many of you know, I am a bit of an organ aficionado, this stemming from the long process of finding an instrument for Schroeder, and also from our selection of and procurement of our Klop positiv organ,
and later our small rehearsal instrument.
Fuel was added to the fire (as I think it was for many of you) when we made our concert tour of Bach's Germany in 2005. Seeing and hearing and making music with all those instruments was so inspiring!
So it's been such a pleasure to me to be involved over the past several years in organizing and planning our annual organ recital. Annie is a dream to work with, and I always learn so much putting these things together with her. For our 2022 recital, we're focusing on Dieterich Buxtehude, including free organ works, vocal solos and duets
(Chris and Dianna will be onboard) and--you guessed it--chorale preludes.
Thus the organ and its repertoire have been on my mind. But dovetailing with that has been putting together materials for the sight-singing class. As those 24 of you who attended last week already know, we're making chorales a central part of that class, beginning with selections from Samuel Scheidt's 'Görlitzer Tabulaturbuch'. In our next class, we'll take up a complementary collection of Bach's four-part chorales. And then we'll dive into a hot-off-the-press anthology of chorale preludes by Johann Pachelbel and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow.
What? Organ preludes in a sight-singing class? Yup. Chorale preludes of a certain genre, when transcribed into open score, are perfect for a) building confidence in singing chorale tunes against very independent accompanying lines; and b) learning to sing some of those wonderful lines against the chorale tune itself. And as a bonus, these activities provide a way to 'crawl inside' pieces and get to know them in a new and more multifaceted way.
I'm excited about this! (Can you tell?) And by the way, there's still room in the class. Our hope is that it will turn into a community of active sight-singers, learning and practicing this fun and important craft together and in smaller groups. If you're interested, let me know ASAP and I will send you links to the materials we covered and will fill you in on what to do before the next class on April 22.
So--ANYWAY--
During all this I came upon a chorale hitherto unknown to me called 'Ach wie elend ist unsre Zeit'. The text is a paraphrase of sections of Psalm 90; the chorale melody is by the ubiquitous Anonymous, who (judging from this product from his/her quill) was a fantastic chorale composer. The tune hits all the markers: Very singable; clear melodic direction; nice combination of leaps and steps; and each phrase has its own distinct character. I love the serpentine third phrase, winding down to 'la'; the bold fifth from 'so' up to 're' in the fourth phrase; and the way the end of the final phrase hearkens back to the end of the second phrase.
You can get an idea of all this by scrutinizing the attached melodic score. I've written the tune out twice: First with solfége syllables for ease of learning, then with the lyrics. A text-translation is included in case you'd like to know what the heck you're singing about.
Once you're adept at singing the tune--the more adept the better--take a look at and a listen to Pachelbel's chorale prelude based thereupon. (Score and recording attached.) First you'll notice that it's divided into two sections: The first four lines comprise a sort of prelude to the prelude, built mainly upon the first phrase (and to some extent the second); while the remainder of the piece is a classic chorale prelude, with clear statements of each phrase in long notes in the top voice, with the rests between phrases filled by a certain amount of noodling in the lower three voices.
Take a close look at this noodling. Since you're familiar with the chorale tune, you'll probably see (or hear) that the lower voices are not noodling at all. Rather, they are creating small fugato (fugue-like) passages which foreshadow--in diminution (shorter note values)--the chorale phrase which is about to enter. And once that phrase does enter in its majestic long notes, the lower voices continue to imitate it, still in diminution. When the long-note phrase ends, the lower voices proceed to foreshadow the next phrase.
Thus the chorale tune in one form or another permeates the entire texture. Especially to listeners who know the tune--and you can be sure that Pachelbel's people were well-steeped in these chorales--the effect is of a wonderful profusion of each melodic line, played high, low, in different harmonies, at different speeds, each phrase proceeding in this rich way from one to the next.
It's hard to describe these things in words! The best way to climb inside, though, is (as noted above) to learn the tune really well. This puts it in your ear, in your mind, in your heart, in your soul. And then when you hear the chorale prelude, you can readily recognize and follow its procession in real time.
-----
Today's chorale is our 51st Wednesday Chorale! I hope you're enjoying these--it's been a real silver lining of this difficult period for me to be able to sit down each week and focus on a great chorale and its manifestations in the works of wonderful composers. I've learned so much. And I can tell you right now that there are plenty of chorales left to explore--
In honor of our completion of a full year's calendar, there's a special treat in store for next Wednesday:
The Omnibus of Chorales!
I've been especially interested in the chorale prelude lately. This is due in part to two simultaneous projects: Working with Annie Laver to program our Organ Recital for January, 2022; and working on Sonoma Bach's
'Adventures in Sight-Singing' class, which I'm co-teaching with Shawna Hervé.
As many of you know, I am a bit of an organ aficionado, this stemming from the long process of finding an instrument for Schroeder, and also from our selection of and procurement of our Klop positiv organ,
and later our small rehearsal instrument.
Fuel was added to the fire (as I think it was for many of you) when we made our concert tour of Bach's Germany in 2005. Seeing and hearing and making music with all those instruments was so inspiring!
So it's been such a pleasure to me to be involved over the past several years in organizing and planning our annual organ recital. Annie is a dream to work with, and I always learn so much putting these things together with her. For our 2022 recital, we're focusing on Dieterich Buxtehude, including free organ works, vocal solos and duets
(Chris and Dianna will be onboard) and--you guessed it--chorale preludes.
Thus the organ and its repertoire have been on my mind. But dovetailing with that has been putting together materials for the sight-singing class. As those 24 of you who attended last week already know, we're making chorales a central part of that class, beginning with selections from Samuel Scheidt's 'Görlitzer Tabulaturbuch'. In our next class, we'll take up a complementary collection of Bach's four-part chorales. And then we'll dive into a hot-off-the-press anthology of chorale preludes by Johann Pachelbel and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow.
What? Organ preludes in a sight-singing class? Yup. Chorale preludes of a certain genre, when transcribed into open score, are perfect for a) building confidence in singing chorale tunes against very independent accompanying lines; and b) learning to sing some of those wonderful lines against the chorale tune itself. And as a bonus, these activities provide a way to 'crawl inside' pieces and get to know them in a new and more multifaceted way.
I'm excited about this! (Can you tell?) And by the way, there's still room in the class. Our hope is that it will turn into a community of active sight-singers, learning and practicing this fun and important craft together and in smaller groups. If you're interested, let me know ASAP and I will send you links to the materials we covered and will fill you in on what to do before the next class on April 22.
So--ANYWAY--
During all this I came upon a chorale hitherto unknown to me called 'Ach wie elend ist unsre Zeit'. The text is a paraphrase of sections of Psalm 90; the chorale melody is by the ubiquitous Anonymous, who (judging from this product from his/her quill) was a fantastic chorale composer. The tune hits all the markers: Very singable; clear melodic direction; nice combination of leaps and steps; and each phrase has its own distinct character. I love the serpentine third phrase, winding down to 'la'; the bold fifth from 'so' up to 're' in the fourth phrase; and the way the end of the final phrase hearkens back to the end of the second phrase.
You can get an idea of all this by scrutinizing the attached melodic score. I've written the tune out twice: First with solfége syllables for ease of learning, then with the lyrics. A text-translation is included in case you'd like to know what the heck you're singing about.
Once you're adept at singing the tune--the more adept the better--take a look at and a listen to Pachelbel's chorale prelude based thereupon. (Score and recording attached.) First you'll notice that it's divided into two sections: The first four lines comprise a sort of prelude to the prelude, built mainly upon the first phrase (and to some extent the second); while the remainder of the piece is a classic chorale prelude, with clear statements of each phrase in long notes in the top voice, with the rests between phrases filled by a certain amount of noodling in the lower three voices.
Take a close look at this noodling. Since you're familiar with the chorale tune, you'll probably see (or hear) that the lower voices are not noodling at all. Rather, they are creating small fugato (fugue-like) passages which foreshadow--in diminution (shorter note values)--the chorale phrase which is about to enter. And once that phrase does enter in its majestic long notes, the lower voices continue to imitate it, still in diminution. When the long-note phrase ends, the lower voices proceed to foreshadow the next phrase.
Thus the chorale tune in one form or another permeates the entire texture. Especially to listeners who know the tune--and you can be sure that Pachelbel's people were well-steeped in these chorales--the effect is of a wonderful profusion of each melodic line, played high, low, in different harmonies, at different speeds, each phrase proceeding in this rich way from one to the next.
It's hard to describe these things in words! The best way to climb inside, though, is (as noted above) to learn the tune really well. This puts it in your ear, in your mind, in your heart, in your soul. And then when you hear the chorale prelude, you can readily recognize and follow its procession in real time.
-----
Today's chorale is our 51st Wednesday Chorale! I hope you're enjoying these--it's been a real silver lining of this difficult period for me to be able to sit down each week and focus on a great chorale and its manifestations in the works of wonderful composers. I've learned so much. And I can tell you right now that there are plenty of chorales left to explore--
In honor of our completion of a full year's calendar, there's a special treat in store for next Wednesday:
The Omnibus of Chorales!