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  • Bach's World
    • 2022-2023 Concerts >
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      • The Little Organ Book
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      • 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
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    • Donate today!
  • Who we are and What we do
    • Mission Statement
  • Our Ensembles
    • Sonoma Bach Choir
    • Circa 1600
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    • Live Oak Baroque Orchestra
  • Support
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    • Sponsor a Singer!
    • Escrip & Amazon Smile
  • Resources
    • Virtual Offerings - Archive >
      • The Choir Loft
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      • Parliamo Italiano! Language Workshop
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      • Virtual Concerts >
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Jesu der du meine Seele by J.S. Bach
Today's chorale is one that I don't know very well--or didn't till today, anyway. It's called 'Jesu der du meine Seele', and it is one of the few Lutheran chorales in which both music and text are attributed to a single person: Johann Rist (1607-1667). There is actually no positive identification of Rist having composed the melody of the chorale; in fact, he frequently worked with various composers on hymn projects, including such Sonoma Bach luminaries as Thomas Selle and Andreas Hammerschmidt, and may have done so on this piece.

Bach wrote a famous cantata on this chorale in September, 1724, part of his Second Jahrgang. The reason I say it's famous is because the opening movement combines the melody with a descending chromatic line, much like the one in the Crucifixus of the  B Minor Mass. But here Bach creates a very different kind of chaconne, beginning the descent on different pitches and in different voices, and combining it not only with the chorale melody (in the sopranos) but also with various counter-lines expressly brewed up for the purpose.

It's this complex design that makes the piece famous, and I (for one) was first exposed to it in a music history class. Musicologists love dearly to expound upon a complex structure, and for that reason Cantata 78 gets into textbooks a lot. You must check it out here; the full score is attached, and a very good text-translation is available here. To hear the melody in a more-or-less standard 'Bach chorale' format, click this link to the closing chorale of the cantata.

Bach didn't leave us any organ versions of this chorale, but three additional harmonizations are to be found among the many 'independent chorales', most of these probably originally from lost cantatas and passions. These versions share a peculiar feature: All three of them include an alternate version of the last two chorale phrases. Scores for these harmonizations are also attached herewith.

BWV 352  BWV 353  BWV 354

I hope to see a bunch of you tonight for the Bach Choir hangout, and I also hope to see many of you a week from tonight for 'Behind the Curtain', in which I'll share some thoughts about concert planning and also some specifics about our 2021-2022 season. We'll even do a bit of singing and listening to music that we'll ultimately be performing
​(God [or whoever the heck is in charge] willing).
Click here to download learning materials
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