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  • Bach's World
    • 2022-2023 Concerts >
      • Travels with Sebastian
      • The Old Bach Archive
      • Christmas with Bach
      • The Little Organ Book
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      • Arnstadt & Mülhausen
      • Bach Through the Years
    • 2022-23 Educational Events >
      • BachTalks
      • Saturday Sings!
    • 2022-23 Virtual Offerings >
      • The Choir Loft >
        • Feb. 5 - Winter's Chill - Dianna Morgan
        • Feb. 12 - The Heirs of Bach: Charles Ives - Steve Osborn
        • March 12 - The Heirs of Bach: Hugo Distler - Steve Osborn
      • Repertoire Exploration Projects
    • Tickets
    • Donate today!
  • Who we are and What we do
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  • Our Ensembles
    • Sonoma Bach Choir
    • Circa 1600
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    • Virtual Offerings - Archive >
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      • Parliamo Italiano! Language Workshop
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      • Virtual Recording Projects
      • Virtual Concerts >
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        • Music for these Distracted Times - Barefoot All-Stars
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Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet
Once again I am a day late, but this time I have a really good excuse: I worked all day yesterday on preparations for tonight's Bach Talk & Sing. It's called 'Bach's World', and its object is to link Bach backwards in time, all the way to the Renaissance and works by Palestrina, Monteverdi, et. al. Musical examples will include only pieces which we are pretty sure Bach knew well, because they were in his library and/or he actually arranged transcribed and/or arranged them. Plenty of great music by composers I know you love, including Monteverdi, Schütz, Schein and Vivaldi,
among other luminaries. 

Please join us tonight!

All that being said, I had already laid out this week's chorale in my notes. It's called 'Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet' (five e's in that last word, by the way, you don't see that every day); as with so many other great chorales, it was adapted from older materials by Martin Luther. The original song was a 14th-century 'Leise' (a folk-style hymn ending with some version of 'Kyrie eleison'); Luther's version as published in 1524 includes some alterations to the melody and two additional verses. His colleague and friend Johann Walter made a four-part setting later on which was published in 1551. A score for this version is attached; here's a link to a recording, which is a little rough but which gives a clear idea of Walter's intentions.

But what really caught my ear (and imagination) is this remarkable setting by Jonathan R. Brell. It's in a traditional style, but with more modern harmonies. I think it's quite effective. I couldn't find a normal score for it, but I am attaching an 'evaluation score' from Carus. Gives an idea. 

The Brell recording linked above is on a beautiful collection, also published by Carus, called 'Luther's Lieder',
which contains almost all of the chorales in which Luther is known to have had a hand, in diverse arrangements
from ancient to modern.

I'm also attaching Bach's single arrangement of the song, BWV 322, one of the so-called 'independent chorales'.
 Here's a good performance. 

I think you'll enjoy getting to know this staunch old song. If you want to explore it further, you can find other settings for voice and also for organ (including a two-verse arrangment by Matthias Weckmann) on YouTube.
Click here to download learning materials
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