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Bach's organ music holds a singular place among his compositions and this status was affirmed in his 1750 Obituary which called him the "World-Famous Organist," above all because he was an unequaled performer and the leading authority on organs, with documented written inspection reports. To bolster his reputation, Bach composed some 100 free-form and 200 chorale-based organ pieces, including theme and variation settings, primarily in the prelude and fugue form, often designed for liturgical purposes, testing the instruments or playing recitals. It is documented that Bach examined 20 organs throughout Germany from 1703 in Arnstadt to 1743-46 at Naumberg, as well as visiting organs in 32 communities, says Christoph Wolff in his exemplary study of Bach's organs.1 Bach worked closely with organ builders and often provided the stops list based upon the church acoustics and other factors. He began learning the organ in Ohrdruf and started producing a range of compositions which explored the full potential of the "King of Instruments." This music "compelled (organ) builders to produce instruments that were more reliable and tonally progressive," say George Stauffer and Ernest May2 in their exemplary collection of Bach organ essays on the instruments, music, and performance practice. Bach particularly favored large-scale instruments that produced distinctive textures and a range of sound.
Bach was the culmination of the European organ composition tradition dating to the earliest 1600 baroque studies of organ music by the Italians and French and following Dutch and North German traditions. At the same time, Bach's music was the culmination of the Bach Family legacy of sacred cantors and organists centered in Thuringia who in the previous generation had actively pursued the organ. Organ music provided Bach with an unparalleled opportunity to perfect the art of composition on the keyboard and to convey this knowledge to his students who nurtured his legacy with various versions of many organ works. Meanwhile, Bach was able to perfect the art of composition through his many settings of preludes and fugues and to exploit and blend instrumental and vocal technique. The organ for Bach was an opportunity to transform pieces through invention from one format to another with the practice of transcription, to utilize the instrument in concerted works embracing trio sonata and concerto forms, to serve as the basso continuo accompaniment in vocal works and as obbligato function in instrumental sinfonias.
Interestingly, while organ music was Bach's formative avenue into the art of performing and composing, it was significant in his career only in the first two decades from Ohrdruf and Weimar and in the final decade on which his reputation flourished. In Cöthen as Capellmeister and Leipzig as cantor and music director, Bach served the court and community with only occasional opportunities to perform at the organ. Meanwhile, Bach, as the Obituary noted, published six keyboard collections, beginning in 1725, as well as the final two polyphonic studies of the Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Most of his compositions survived only in manuscript, particularly vocal and instrumental music which complemented each other and embraced the "widest possible spectrum of musical instruments and human voices," says Wolff (Ibid.: XVI). "All of this was supported by a deep knowledge and keen awareness of technological and physiological details and balanced by intellectual discipline and temperamental sensitivity."
"The foundation for Bach's systematic approach to his musical undertakings was firmly established before he started his career," says Wolff. Then, the early years in Arnstadt, Mühlhausen and Weimar gave Bach "ideal opportunities for extensive practicing, refection, and composition." In Arnstadt Bach learned the art of organ-building on a new, superior instrument "a perfect performance laboratory" where he could perfect his virtuosity and as a composer and "develop his harmonic fantasy and tonal ideas." Meanwhile, Bach encountered respected and influential colleagues, particularly the organists Dietrich Buxtehude, Georg Bohm, Adam Reinken in Northern Germany, and Johann Effler in Weimar. Bach was fully prepared for the systematic composition of church-year cantatas in Weimar in 1714, the foundation of his "well-regulated church music to the glory of God." He had mastered the keyboard genres of chorale settings involving large-scale fantasias, complex chorale partitas variations, and extended fugues, having begun with miniature forms such as the canzona, concerto and toccata of the Italians, the preludes and fantasias of the French, often with dance styles, to the more versatile, complex forms of fugue, trio sonata, and motet. By 1710, Bach had mastered the extended form and artistic demands with his Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtFMxFQrKc4), which exploits variations in a contrapuntal context far beyond his contemporaries. At the same time Bach had perfected the "new aesthetic premise of his small-format compositions," notably the succinct chorale preludes of the Orgelbüchlein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtDkbtkVFxY) with motet and aria styles in their "motivically-compact structure and formal symmetry," observes Wolff (Ibid.: xvii), citing "Herr Christ, der ein'ge Gottessohn, BWV 601 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI6keVFlNWA). This Weimar unfinished collection also served as a hymnal template for the church-year cantatas and liturgical, congregational hymns.
In his final decade, Bach in his organ works turned to expand his large original works (1700-1717) which were "monothematic pieces with cyclical structures," says Stauffer-May (Ibid.: 102f), refining and assembling them into his late compositional practice with stylistic elements that perfected polyphonic procedures with contemporary stylistic features. He perfected Weimar large-scale chorale preludes in the "18 Leipzig" works, incorporated trio-sonata style into arias in Leipzig sacred cantatas (Schübler Chorales, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEQVlGzusWQ) transcribed for the organ, and integrated old-fashion motet and alle-breve techniques along side modern gallant and dance styles into his Clavierübung III Mass & Catechism settings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFkBfsd1kYs), exploring new territory in performing technique and composition. Major innovations are found in the late 1740s published Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch," BWV 769 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhhc6_e_CK0).
Bach's organ compositions, the genre, and the instruments themselves showed a myriad of interests and pursuits, says Wolff (Ibid.: xviiif). "The majority of his organ works were written for his activities as a recitalist" while the varied early liturgical chorale settings were intended as improvisational compositional devices and in the last decade as a summary of his art. The organ registration principles enabled Bach to create "new tonal experiences" also in his orchestra and vocal ensemble repertories. Bach had a special interest in sound and sound combinations, as well as "the building and development of new musical instruments of all kinds." Besides the improvement of forte pianos built in the Silberman style, Bach explored sound reproduction in various other keyboard instruments as well as woodwind and string instruments. Notably in his adaptations from one solo instrument to another in his concertos is the inherent sense of the unique, idiomatic sound quality of each instrument as he framed the accompaniment. "Bach's vast practical experience with the organ, his intense and wide-ranging self-education, his innate curiosity, and his active contact with skilled and experienced organ builders made him an organ expert of the first rank," says Wolff (Ibid.: xviii). "Despite all of the knowledge of the organ, the Obituary notes (cites Wolff, ibid.: xx)," he never enjoyed the good fortune, as he used to point out frequently with regret, of having a really large and really beautiful organ at his constant disposal." Meanwhile, Bach's numerous and quite varied organ works "were never conceived for a specific instrument," says Wolff.
Organ Works Classified, Published
In the Bach Werke Verzeichnis (BWV) works catalogue of 1950 and the Neue Bach Ausgabe (new Bach edition) that replaced the Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe (BGA), the music is divided into 12 categories (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis), with works for organ, BWV 525771, the second largest after vocal music, BWV 1-524. List of Organ Compositions is found in the format in which they were catalogued in the BWV with 73 free-form works involving primarily preludes and fugues and 173 chorale liturgical chorale settings in groupings or collections, BWV 525 to 771, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach. In addition are the "Usage of hymn tunes in Bach's chorale preludes," alphabetically, with Bach's other applications in vocal and instrumental music.
The most substantial catalogue listing of organ compositions currently available is the Bach Compendium, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Ref/IndexRef-BC.htm), with two classifications: J - Free Organ Works, K - Chorale-based Organ Works (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Organ-List.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/CompleteOrgan.pdf). The Bach Compendium groupings for organ works (J and K), are by types, with J having six trio sonatas, 60 preludes and fugues, 31 miscellaneous pieces, and seven concertos. The K chorale category has the preludes and fugues by collections: 45 Orgelbüchlein settings, six Schübler Chorales, the 18 "Leipzig" chorales with variants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_raV2I7sJSU), 23 Clavierübung III Mass & Catechism settings with variants, 23 "Kirnberger" early chorales (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMpP4ykqbxI&list=PL0236250D17FBBE78), 50 Miscellaneous early chorales (https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D20EA45A2B7879FE), seven partita variation settings (https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=19B88AA329247F39), 30 Neumeister settings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mCxkex9vlA, 29 chorale settings from the BWV Anhang (Appendix), 40 chorale settings classified as "BWV deest" early works transmitted by students and attributed to Bach but not authenticated; and 10 settings listed in Peter Williams' definitive study of Bach's organ music.3
Additional organ works classified as BWV Deest recently have been added to the NBA, Vol. 9, Reinmar Emans, "Organ Chorales from Miscellaneous Sources" (2008), https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5290_41/: "Content"). The authenticity of many shorter works is still debated as most survive in manuscripts handed down by Bach's students. These have been dated by stylistic features and most of the chorale settings date to Bach's early years, beginning in Ohrdruf and continuing through Weimar. Obviously, Bach copied out many of these early didactic, improvisatory settings of liturgical chorales to encourage organists and students to perfect the art of composition and performance. In Leipzig, Bach renewed his interest in keyboard music, publishing various study collections of Clavierübung (1725-1743) while creating selective preludes and fugues for special, occasional services and also setting organ concertos with movements as sinfonias in sacred cantatas of the third cycle (1725-27).
Organ Works Published editions
NBA Revised Edition, Series IV, Organ Works (Bärenreiter), 11 volumes published of 15 (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/catalogue/complete-editions/bach-johann-sebastian/nba/series-iv/); 2 volumes in preparation: BA 5939-01, Organ Chorales I, ed. Christine Blanken; and (No Ref. No.), Organ Chorales 2, no editor assigned (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/catalogue/complete-editions/bach-johann-sebastian/nbarev/overview-of-volumes/). It is possible that the new NBA3 (Christine Blanken, 2020) will catalogue additional organ works (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#BWV3, "Later additions to the main catalogue (above BWV 1128: BWV3)."
The Leupold Bach Edition: The Complete Bach Organ Works, in preparation (5 of 15 volumes published), ed. George B. Stauffer (http://www.wayneleupold.com/bach-organ-works, https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P3-3440022451/j-s-bach-the-complete-organ-works-the-leupold-edition), includes, The Complete Organ Works, Series II: Volume 2, The Chorales of the Organ Works Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Mark Bighley (http://www.wayneleupold.com/the-complete-organ-works-series-ii-volume-2-standard-html.html).
Bach Samtliche Orgelwerke (Breitkopf), 10 volumes published (https://www.jwpepper.com/sheet-music/library-bach-samtliche-orgelwerke.list); 2 volumes published in in 2018, eds. Reinmar Emans & Matthias Schneider (with critical commentary: Vol. 9, Choral Partitas / Individually transmitted Choral Settings I, and Vol. 10, Individually transmitted Choral Settings II.
Historical publications. Individual Bach organ works began to be printed about 1810 and the Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe (BGA) published most of the works with later BWV numbers in four volumes: Volume 3 (C. F. Becker, 1553), Clavierübung III; Volume 15 (Wilhelm Rust 1867), BWV 525-48, 564-66 and 582; Volume 25.2 (Wilhelm Rust 1878), Orgelbüchlein, Schübler, Leipzig 18, variants; Volume 38 (Ernst Naumann 1891), free-standing preludes & fugues, fantasias, concerto arrangements, variants, pieces of uncertain authorship; and Volume 40 (Naumann, 1893), chorales "Kirnberger," preludes, variations, variants. Three of the BGA volumes of organ music, nos.3, 15, and 25.2, were reprinted in the Johann Sebastian Bach Organ Music Dover publication in 1970 (Six Trio Sonatas; the Clavierübung III, Orgelbüchlein; Schübler Chorales; and the Eighteen "Leipzig" Chorale Preludes), see https://www.amazon.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Organ-Music/dp/0486223590: "Read more." Meanwhile, the Edition Peters published nine volumes of Bach's organ music, from 1844 to 1881, edited by Friedrich Conrad Griepenkerl and Ferdinand August Roitzsch, revised by Max Sieffert and Herrmann Keller (https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/publishers/edition-peters/johann-sebastian-bach/3000032+1800148?narrow_by=Organ+Music&Ntt=Organ+Music). Also, Editio Musica Budapest has published 11 volumes of Bach's Organ Music (https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/complete-organ-works-volume-11-sheet-music/20484766).
Published in 1954 from the BGA and still extant is Schirmer's "Complete Organ Works" in 8 volumes (https://www.amazon.com/COMPLETE-Critico-Practical-Nies-Berger-Schweitzer-Concertos/dp/B07B6SSQQ5, Volumes 1-5 (free-standing preludes & fugues, concertos, sonatas) eds. Charles-Marie Widor & Albert Schweitzer, Volumes 6-8 (Chorales, Orgelbüchlein, Clavierübung III, Schübler, 18 Leipzig, chorale variations), eds. Eduard Nies-Berger & Albert Schweitzer.
Individual Organ Works are classified as follows:
A. Free-form, non-liturgical (compositional studies, recital pieces):
1. Six Sonatas in trio sonata form (BWV 525530, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_Sonatas_(Bach)
2. In the form of a Prelude, Toccata, Fantasia, Passacaglia, middle movement and/or Fugue (BWV 531582, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#BWV_Chapter_7)
3. Trios (BWV 583586)
4. Miscellaneous Pieces (BWV 587-591)
5. Concertos (BWV 592597, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_concerto_(Bach)
6. Pedal Exercise (BWV 598) in G minor (fragment, authorship uncertain, presumably by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach)
B. Liturgical Chorale settings:
7. Chorale Prelude Collections
7.1. Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book, BWV 599644, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgelbüchlein
7.2. Schübler Chorales (six aria trios), BWV 645-650, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schübler_Chorales
7.3. Chorales formerly known as the "Great 18," BWV 651-668 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Eighteen_Chorale_Preludes)
7.4. Chorale Preludes (21) in Clavier-Übung III German Organ Mass, Catechism (BWV 669689, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clavier-Übung_III.
7.5. Chorale Preludes (24), formerly known as "from the Kirnberger collection" (BWV 690713, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#BWV_690)
7.6. Miscellaneous (51) chorale preludes (BWV 714765, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#NBA_IV-9)
7.7. Chorale partitas/variations (BWV 766768, 770, https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/24151)
7.8. Chorale variations (Canonic Variations, BWV 769, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonic_Variations_on_%22Vom_Himmel_hoch_da_komm%27_ich_her%22),
7.9. Also known in a version for keyboard (BWV 957)
8. Later additions to the BWV catalogue:
8.1 Various (BWV 10851087):
8.2. Neumeister Chorales (BWV 10901120), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neumeister_Collection
8.3. Recovered from the Anhang (BWV 1121 and 1128), BWV2
9. BWV Anhang (Various lost, doubtful and spurious organ works are included in the BWV Anhang: BWV Anh. 4279,
BWV Anh. 171178, BWV Anh. 200, 206, 208, 213.
Various settings of keyboard music, BWV 772994 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#BWV_Chapter_8), the third largest category of Bach's works, include pieces appropriate for organ such as the canonic duets, BWV 802-805, in the Clavierübung III, as well as 16 concerto transcriptions of other composers for solo keyboard, BWV 972-987 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#after_Vivaldi). At the same time, various transcriptions or borrowings of Bach's and other's works for organ and keyboard he did for a variety of reasons: adaptations for new purpose/setting or available instrument, application for a particular liturgical or non-liturgical context, or as a pedagogical study for application by students.
Bach Mastering Organ, Composing
Beginning with the shorter chorale prelude collections composed at Ohrdruf and Arnstadt, Bach mastered the art of organ playing and composition: the Miscellaneous Chorales, BWV 714-765, some with authority still disputed, the so-called Kirnberger (actually "Breitkopf") Chorales, BWV 690-713, and the Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599-644. These were "transcriptions" of improvisatory prelude settings of chorale melodies which Bach wrote out for his organ and composition students, especially in Weimar, while some were intended for introduction to the chorales sung at services. Early on Bach also experimented with the variation form of the Chorale Partitas and Variations, BWV 766-770, in a more extended form, perhaps as prelude, postlude or communion hymn. In Weimar, Bach compiled the original versions of the "Great 18" chorale preludes, as extended compositional studies with revisions and alternate versions revised about 1742. Bach also composed alternative versions of his free-form preludes and fugues. In his final, published organ composition in 1747, Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her," BWV 769 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhhc6_e_CK0), Bach explored the chorale variations with the fugal form in five movements with significant innovations (for fugal works, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fugal_works_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach).
The other main category of Bach compositions, 21 free-form preludes (or toccatas or fantasias) and fugues (Bach Compendium BC J), BWV 532-552 were composed beginning at the same time as the chorale preludes in Ohrdruf (BWV 531, 533, 535, 549), as Bach worked to shape extended, free compositions as studies and for organ recitals. Bach also composed early settings of fantasias as variations and as well as independent preludes. He continued to compose preludes and fugues in Weimar, the best-known being BWV 532, 543 and 566. He also compiled concerto transcriptions in Weimar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_concerto_transcriptions_(Bach)) as compositional and teaching devices. In Leipzig, Bach composed extended free-form preludes and fugues possibly to open and close occasional liturgical services: E minor, BWV 548 1727-36; B minor, 544. Bach also composed trio-sonatas in Leipzig primarily in the later 1720s, the best-known being the six sonatas, BWV 525-530. The group contains reworkings from prior compositions such as cantatas, organ works and chamber music as well as one original work, BWV 530. These were composed as private studies for organ techniques for son Friedemann that originally were developed as trios by French composers. Bach used the trio format in other organ works as well as chorale settings, the best known in the collection of the six published Schübler Chorales, BWV 645-50, based on trio arias composed for cantatas in the mid 1720s.
While Bach cherished the music of other composers from whom he did transcriptions, he also in his free organ works pursued the Stylus Phantasticus in his special manner that inspired succeeding composers and arrangers to do transcriptions of his music, which continues to today in all manner of reworkings.3 In his early compositions Bach had the impetus to explore all types of fantasias, toccatas, capriccios and preludes and fugues. His early (1704) preludes and fugues, BWV 533 in e and 536 in A are related to the North German toccata. The iconic but disputed Toccata and Fugue in d, BWV 565, possibly originally dated to 1705-6 with Bach's return visit to Hamburg and Lübeck and shows Bach's pursuit of the expanded tri-partite form of prelude, fugue, and recitative. In the later organ works in Leipzig, Bach perfects the prelude and fugue with closing, expansive toccata-style fugues in e, (BWV 548); b (BWV 544), c (BWV 546), and E-flat (BWV 552), as well as the expressive closing in the Prelude and Fugue in f (BWV 534) and the pedal point coda of the "Dorian" Toccata& Fugue in d, BWV 538 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRY7zrMGCi8). The most impressive prelude and fugue is the "St. Anne" in E-flat, BWV 552, blocking the Mass and Catechism chorales in the Clavierübung III, published in 1539, which also embraces French overture, Italian concerto, and German triple fugue (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clavier-Übung_III#Prelude_and_fugue_BWV_552). This music is appropriate for the Trinity Sunday festival as well as the festival vespers and the Catechism service following the Sunday main service.
Organ Music Reception History
Central to Bach arrangements is the "BACH" four-note musical motiv (B-flat, A, C, B-natural) which Bach exploited, followed by various composers in the first Bach Revival, beginning in the 19th century and continuing unabated today (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BACH_motif, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Arran/L-BACH.htm). Albert Schweitzer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer) in the first half of the 20th century brought before the public Bach's organ works through his recordings. With the 20th century development of electronic recordings, as described in Paul Elie's Reinventing Bach,4 Bach's fame spread with the invention of the long-playing record about 1950 and as the anniversary celebrations of 1985 and 2000 included the "complete" Bach recorded editions which continue today. Now, there are more than 60 sets of the complete organ music (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Organ-Complete.htm).
The original revival of Bach's music had a religious perspective, beginning with the revival of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829, followed by the John Passion and Mass in B Minor, the motets, and a select group of sacred cantatas. At the turn of the 20th century, Schweitzer studied in Paris with the famous French organist and composer Charles-Marie Widor, while also studying theology at Strasbourg University for five years. Schweitzer had been trained to see Bach's music "as inextricably bound with Lutheran worship and liberal protestant theology," says Elie (Ibid.: 34). Through Widor, another Bach revivalist who called the organ works "sermons in sound," Schweitzer "encountered a broader, Enlightenment-style religiosity" and published his Bach musical biography in 2005 in French. He soon wrote a German version which was then translated into English. It ignited not so much another revival but a reinvention of Bach as an iconic figure. For Bach the famed organist in his lifetime had composed an unparalleled body of music which underwent Bach's "death and resurrection," 50 years later, says Schweitzer. While the early recordings were being improved, the organ as a musical instrument also underwent improvement and experienced a revival which extended to the massive electronic theater organs in the 1930s.
The other Bach phenomenon is the development of orchestral transcriptions miniatures of Bach's music for performance and recordings. Leading the way was Leopold Stokowski who began with the iconic "Toccata and Fugue in d," which Albert Schweitzer had championed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgpgDlCA_rA) along with the "Little Fugue" in G Minor, BWV 578, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HjtjIkK20E). Trained as an organist, Stokowski arranged the work for full orchestra and eventually presented it with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1926. The arrangement gained particular fame with the 1940 animated movie, Fantasia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasia_(1940_film). Stokowski transcribed at least 42 of Bach's works for orchestra (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Arran/OT-Stokowski.htm) and published many which are still recorded (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Arran/OT-Stokowski-Rec-Orchestra-2.htm). Recording technology also has enhanced new formats in which Bach's music has prospered, most notably the Moog synthesizer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rcw5GCXJnQ) and the Swingle Singers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK69zl19c0Y), as the solid-state electronic revolution took hold in the 1960s (http://bach-cantatas.com/Arran/index.htm).
Major, Modern Research Impetus
The major, modern Bach research impetus began in the 1950s with the publication of the New Bach Edition followed by the corrected dating of Bach's vocal music. In particular the some 200 sacred cantatas generated a cottage industry of recordings, studies, text translations, handbooks, and anthologies. By the 1985 tricentennial of Bach's birth, publications expanded to cover the rest of the vocal music as well as the instrumental works, particularly the organ as recordings proliferated. The noted writer Peter Williams produced a thrvolume study of Bach's organ music, analyzing virtually every original work and their variants, which he updated and condensed into a two-volume edition in 2003. Meanwhile, he published three biographies of Bach, The Life of Bach, published in 2004 and expanded as JS Bach: A Life in Music (2007), and his last work, Bach A Musical Biography (2016) in which he provides fresh insights into the music.
Today, Russel Stinson is the leading writer on Bach's organ music, having produced monographs on the Orgelbüchlein and "The Great 18 Chorales," as well as The Reception of Bach's Organ Works from Mendelssohn to Brahms, and The Bach Manuscripts of Johann Peter Kellner and J. S. Bach at His Royal Instrument: Essays on his Organ Works (2012), all from Oxford University Press. Another study of the collections is Anne Leahy's J. S. Bach's Leipzig Chorale Preludes, ed. Robin A. Leaver, Contextual Bach Studies No.3 (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 2011), with the links of the music to the texts and theology. Other studies include The Six Organ Chorales (Schübler) by Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Albert Riemenschneider (Bryn Mawr PA: Oliver Ditson, 1942) with suggestions for interpretation; David Humphreys The Esoteric Structure of Bachs Clavierübung III (Cardiff GB: University College Cardiff Press, 1983; https://www.jstor.org/stable/3137740?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents), and Gregory Butler's Bach's Clavier-Übung III: The Making of a Print; With a Companion Study of the Canonic Variations on "Von Himmel ho h, BWV 769, Sources of Music and Their Interpretation, Duke Studies in Music (Durhan NC: Duke University Press, 1990). George Stauffer's study of the complete organ works is due for publication in 2020 at Oxford University Press.
Stinson's 2012 essays adds additional materials on Mendelssohn and Schumann as well as Cesar Franck and "Aspects of Reception from Bach's Day to the Present," focuses on the free preludes and fugues. In "Studies and Discoveries." Stinson examines Williams' discoveries and commentaries on the past three decades of Bach organ research, including almost 60 additional works, in the 2003 edition of the The Organ Music of J. S. Bach. "Scholarly interest in Bach's organ music will continue unabated well into the new millennium," Stinson says (Ibid.:3). Williams' theories include the idea that the iconic Toccata & Fugue in d minor, BWV 565, was originally composed for solo violin by an Italian composer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNfox7ORW1Q), and suggests the transcriber was either Bach student Johann Peter Kellner or his student, Johannes Ringk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor,_BWV_565).
Williams aded a third volume to The Organ Music of J. S. Bach in 1984 (Cambridge University Press): "A Background," involving notes on the church services in Thuringa-Saxony, the tradition of recitals, organists' duties, Bach's indebtedness to former and contemporary styles in music, and Bach's knowledge of organs. Williams made no separate revision of this volume of extensive, source-critical materials. Beginning with simple accompaniment of Lutheran chorales in the services, the use of the organ expanded as the chorales increased to fill all church-year services and the treatment of chorales became more poetic and theological (see Carl F. Schalk's "German Hymnology," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/German-Hymnology%5BCarl-F-Schalk%5D.pdf: 19ff). Increasingly, the organ introduced and closed the main service with a prelude and postlude in non-liturgical free-form prelude and fugue, introduced the chorale before the sermon with fughettas and longer preludes during communion, played interludes between the lines and completed verse solos in alternation with the congregation and/or the choir. The Vespers services with organ were presented on the day before and the feast day, a service of the word without communion, but with the repeat of the festival ensemble music of the cantata for the feast day as well as a Latin setting of the Magnificat, before and after the sermon.
In his chapter on "Hymns, Hymnbooks and Singing," Williams points out that more than a "third of the organ chorales use melodies not found in the cantatas" (Ibid.: 19), as Bach sought to utilize and incorporate into the services special liturgical hymns such as those found in the Clavierübung III, as well as many of the free-standing chorales, BWV 253-438. The reverse is true with Bach: for example, none of the 19 hymns of Paul Gerhardt found in cantatas appear in the organ chorales. Speculation continues with the remaining organ works such as the Orgelbüchlein, which may have originated when Bach played a recital in Halle in 1712 and began a collection of preludes and fugues for the church year there, and that the Great 18 were revised in various stages, possibly involving Bach's students as compositional studies, possibly like the "Toccata Fugue in d minor," BWV 565. The "Great 18" and the Clavierübung III may be "Bach's conscious response to fashion: perhaps an expression of loyalty to melodies often discarded elsewhere," says Williams (Ibid.: 20). "Bach's Greatest Fugues" is a recording for double orchestra, arranged by Arthur Harris, with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69uHZGU13lI).
FOOTNOTES
|1 Christoph Wolff, The Organs of J. S. Bach: A Handbook, trans. Lynn Edwards Butler (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012: 139; https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt2tt9ss).
2 George Stauffer, Ernest May, J. S. Bach as Organist (Indiana University Press, 2000 paperback ed.: ix, http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=21992).
3 Peter Williams, The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, 2nd ed. (CambridgeUniversity Press, 2003, https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Organ_Music_of_J_S_Bach.html?id=3SfzUEWrDR0C.
4 Paul Elie, Reinventing Bach (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012); https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/books/reinventing-bach-by-paul-elie.html, https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/articles-and-reviews-for-em-reinventing-bach-em-by-paul-elie).
To Come: Albert Schweitzer and "Reinventing Bach." |
