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    • 2022-2023 Concerts >
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      • BachTalks
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    • 2022-23 Virtual Offerings >
      • The Choir Loft >
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  • Who we are and What we do
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 O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid
Today's chorale is a relatively short one, but it sure packs a punch. It's a Good Friday chorale called 'O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid' ('O Sadness, O Heartache'). I first learned of it via its appearance in Johann Christoph Bach's motet 'Fürchte dich nicht', one of the pieces featured in last week's Bach Talk and Sing, 'Bach's World'. Some of you may recall the piece and the wonderful recording I played. Both score and the recordings are attached herewith. It's amazing the way 'the profound composer' (as JS Bach referred to his father's cousin) holds off on the chorale till about the middle of the piece, and then features it on top of the texture, while the lower voices continue with their separate text. So moving--

Here's a recording of JS Bach's only setting of the chorale, BWV 404; a score is attached, which would be useful if you want to get to know the melody. This is one of the 'independent' chorale settings, though it has now been determined to have been the closing chorale of the St. Mark Passion, premiered in 1731; it uses the final verse of the text. (The music for the Passion is lost, but the libretto by Picander has survived, allowing some speculative reconstruction to be done.)

Here's a very different arrangement by Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900), an Austrian composer and conductor. He takes a much more contrapuntal approach, actually akin to the very early settings of Lutheran chorales by Johann Walter, Arnoldus von Bruck and others; and also (in a different way) akin to the chorale settings of Brahms. Each line of the chorale is taken up by each voice, at different pitch levels and at times even in inversion. Again, a score is attached for your studying/singing pleasure.

I find it fascinating to discover the qualities of each chorale, and then try to determine the features which might attract a composer to create a chorale setting. Sometimes, of course, it is just a matter of filling up a volume. But many times, one senses a deep connection between the chorale and its polyphonic setting. You can feel immediately the inspiration which the composer has drawn from the preëxisting material. And, of course, as we get to know and love more chorales and settings, we can see and hear these connections (and their fruits) so much more readily.
Click here to download learning materials
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