Organ Music: Today's Perspectives, Traditions
Discussions

Organ Music: Today's Perspectives, Traditions

William L. Hoffman wrote (January 19, 2019):
The last half century has seen a proliferation of recordings and publications of Bach, most notably in the categories of cantatas and organ music, the two leading genres. While the cantatas have gained the most attention in scholarly research and publications, especially the scientific dating of the three extant cycles through Bach's surviving manuscripts, the organ music, numbering some 100 free works and 200 chorale-based pieces, remains a conundrum of authenticity and chronology. There are numerous variant versions as well as transcriptions of free pieces containing other works with the results that many cannot be dated and lack definitive versions. Some original autographs and published works survive in comparison with the many organ works extant, primarily through the first generation of Bach students who engaged in compositional and performing studies, copied the works from autographs and added numerous and varied alternative versions. Further, Bach's keyboard music overlaps among the organ, harpsichord and clavichord pieces. The organ works are considered part of Bach's calling for a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God," with two categories: the free (non-chorale), non-liturgical works, BWV 525-598, for recitals and service postludes, and the chorale-based, liturgical works appropriate for services, BWV 526-771 and 1167-1175; and BWV Appendices A-D, Anhang & Deest

Thus, there are lacking definitive versions of his organ works except for those published as the Clavier-Übung III German Organ Mass, Catechism (BWV 669–689) in 1739, the Schübler Chorales (six aria trios), BWV 645-650, and the Canonic Variatiions on "Vom Himmel hoch," BWV 769, both dating to about 1747. A few other collections survive in Bach's autograph, most notably Weimar works of the unfinished Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book), chorale preludes, BWV 599–644; the "Great 18" chorale preludes, BWV 651-668, the Trio Sonatas, BWV 651-668; and the Concerto Transcriptions, BWV 592-597. Bach student Johann Kirnberger (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Kirnberger) compiled a collection of 24 chorale settings, BWV 690-713 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#BWV_690), which he had obtained from Leipzig published Breitkopf and are now known as the "Breitkopf Chorales." Other contemporary sources include the collection of Johann Gottfried Walther (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Walther)-Johann Tobias Krebs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Tobias_Krebs) and Johann Ludwig Krebs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Ludwig_Krebs). Other individual works extant as autographs include groupings of the free preludes and fugues from Ohrdurf-Arnstadt, Weimar, and Leipzig, Together these works were published by the Bach Gesellschaft in four volumes between in 1853 and 1891.

Bach Organ Music Revival

By the time of the Bach Bicentennial in 1985, contemporary manuscripts as well as much later manuscripts from the Bach circle began to surface. First came the Andreas Bach Book with 15 Bach keyboard works with only one chorale setting, "Gottes Sohn ist kommen," BWV 724 (see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Bach_Buch) and the companion Möller Manuscript with nine keyboard works https://imslp.org/wiki/Möller_Manuscript_(Various), in the hand of Bach's oldest brother Johann Christoph. In 1984, the Neumeister Collection (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neumeister_Collection) of early chorale preludes was authenticated with 31 catalogued pieces, BWV 1090-1120. This "immediately led their attributions to Bach to be taken more seriously and some pieces were restored to the canon," causing "a radical revision of Bach's early development as an organ composer," says Nicholas Kenyon in his study of Bach's Works: Bach 333, The New Complete Edition (Berlin: Deutsche Grammophon, 2018, https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8469462--bach-333-the-new-complete-edition).

Another chorale collection at Harvard University is that of Christian Heinrich Rink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Heinrich_Rinck, student of Johann Christian Kittel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Christian_Kittel), Bach's last student, which includes 16 previously unknown chorale arrangements attributed to Bach but not ordered by church year as found in Neumeister (https://www.allmusic.com/album/bach-organ-chorales-of-the-rinck-and-rudorff-collections-mw0001939313) as well as five previously unpublished chorale settings found in the Rudorff Collection in the Leipzig municipal music library (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5169/: Contents).

Most recently, the search for chorale settings possibly linked to Bach has involved 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 and chronology of many shorter works is still debated as most survive only in various manuscripts handed down through the Bach circle, particularly his students or their students. See Eman's "Preface," translated by J. Bradford Robinson, for details of sources and authenticity. 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. Questionable works were classified as BWV Anh. II, Works of doubtful authenticity. The New Bach Werke Verzeichnis BWV3 (in preparation) has four categories of Appendices A to D of works in decreasing order of likely authenticity.

Organ Music Dating, Authenticity

The dilemma is described in Jonathan Baxendale's liner notes to the Kevin Boyer recording, Vo1. 15, Rinck Chorales (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Bowyer.htm#Organ: R-15. A <<sizeable quantity of Bach’s organ music can be found in the hands of, for example, his pupils, who were perhaps required to make copies of his music for their own purposes, as well as his sons and other musicians working within the locality. Of these, many were disseminated further afield, leaving a perplexing array of manuscripts from not only Bach’s generation, but from those of his pupils and, in turn, theirs, which differ considerably from his original intentions not only in terms of notes, but sometimes in terms of structure and instrumentation. Allied to this bewildering array is a collection of pieces that are spurious in their authorship, which for any number of reasons have found themselves provided with a Bach attribution.>>

<<So, the picture that emerges, one that is a considerable source of debate for Bach scholars, is of (1) a considerably large number of unique autograph manuscripts containing works that are definitely from the pen of Bach; (2) a percentage of autographs that prove to be revisions by Bach of earlier works; (3) a larger corpus of music in the pen of members of Bach’s immediate circle that we can be certain is by him, since they also exist in either autograph form, carry his name or display qualities that are unmistakably Bachian; (4) a considerable amount of music that, in light of more recent research, has been attributed to him wrongly and which, as a result, may be deleted from the Bach catalogues.>>

Complicating matters are student copies that are variants of accepted Bach works. Some can involve considerable alterations: <<The Prelude, Trio and Fugue in B-flat major (BWV 545b) is one such example. A transposed variant of the C major prelude and fugue (BWV 545, see Volume 12), it is one of four very different conceptions of the work: (1) a version with a shortened prelude; (2) one with the longer prelude that is today accepted as BWV 545; (3) the same as (2), but with the movements separated by a trio; (4) a B-flat major version of the shortened prelude (1), followed by an arrangement of the second movement of the g minor sonata for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord (BWV 1029) and then the fugue, in which the three movements are separated by two short bridge sections. >>. In some cases the variants involve special adaptations for recital performances or adjustments to fit different organs. This glimpse into the compositional and re-compositional process suggests that in Bach's workshop it was possible that considerable study and collaboration was involved, with Bach encouraging his students to pursue their own versions through improvisation and transformation. Such may be the case of the iconic "Toccata & Fugue in D minor," BWV 565 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor,_BWV_565).

While the various versions of a work have caused uncertainty as to their exact dating and genesis, the organ works have only recently been considered by chronology. The beginning with the Bach Compendium categories J and K (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/CompleteOrgan.pdf) in 2007. That year the compositional elements of the early organ music were undertaken by Richard D. P. Jones,² with keyboard individual works discussed by grouping and chronology, along with early cantatas, some still not precisely dated. "Many of these pieces were continually refined and revised over the years," says Nicholas Kenyon (Ibid.: 104). "Interestingly, the quest of the NBA for a single version of the pieces has been widened in some of the latest volumes." The Leipzig Bach Archive new edition of the Bach Werke Verzeichnis (BWV3) in preparation "shows the latest refinement of thinking on Bach's authorship," says Kenyon (Ibid.).

Marie-Claire Alain Perspective

On of the first collections of Bach's organ music is Marie-Claire Alain, from 1957. Liner notes discuss here project, her style, and the organs she played. She also discusses the discrepancies between the BG and Peters editions as well as a comment on authenticity.

<< MARIE-CLAIRE ALAIN’S FIRST COMPLETE BACH CYCLE (1959-1967)

We have had to wait a long time for this “Scandinavian” complete set – which includes all the works listed in Schmieder’s Bach catalogue, the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, even those that are not actually by Bach – to come out on CD. This was of course a pioneering project that ushered in a completely new attitude towards the organ and its music, yet the way had already been paved by some earlier ventures: we can be sure that Marie-Claire Alain [1926-2013, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Alain-Marie-Claire.htm], who was thirty-three when she began this adventure, did not embark on her monumental task without intense preparation, including in the field of recording. She made her first recording of Bach in 1954, in the Paris church of Saint-Merri (this was her first disc for Erato, which was re-released in 2014 as part of the Erato Story series), following this up with nine albums for the Discophiles français label (trio sonatas and “free” compositions, 1954-55) – with the first fugue from the Toccata BWV 566, whose crispness of touch and articulation, lively spirit and intense richness heralded the miracle that was to come. The luminosity and clarity of the Scandinavian organs came as a revelation: finally it was possible for Alain to realise, to the advantage of both the polyphonic and the melodic writing of Bach, the sonorities suggested by a study of the scores. A different world emerged, generating a musical earthquake that would have a profound effect on generations of musicians and music-lovers, as well as on Alain herself. This cycle of recordings [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Alain.htm#Organ] proved to be just the first stage in her avid pursuit of Bach, which was to produce two further sets of the complete organ works: in 1978-80 and 1985-93 (the latter on historic instruments). © Michel Roubinet, 2018

ISSUES OF INTERPRETATION

Among the many issues the performer has to get to grips with, three in particular are worthy of mention here: the musical text, tempo and registration.

The musical text

The often disconcerting discrepancies between the Peters edition of Bach and the Bachgesellschaft edition are well known. The Peters edition is not without its faults, but the Bachgesellschaft edition is riddled with “amendments” perpetrated by over-zealous restorers or those who are too logically-minded (for example, in the Trio Sonata No. 5, an F sharp in the pedal twelve bars before the end of the third movement creates a false relation with an F natural in the left hand: the pedal F sharp was suppressed by the Bachgesellschaft, though it appears in the two known manuscripts of this work). I constantly had to compare these two editions, in addition to comparing them with any other editions that happened to be available, and then choose – following careful reflection – the one that seemed to me to be most in keeping with the spirit of the music. However, it was impossible ever to make a totally watertight decision, as even manuscripts whose photocopies I was able to consult offered divergent readings.

It should therefore come as no surprise to discover that I adopt the Peters version for some works and the Bachgesellschaft version for others, and that I use one edition to correct mistakes in the other. I believe that a performer should be able to shoulder certain responsibilities. Works not included in either of the two main editions were taken from the Bornemann edition (chorale preludes and the Partita in G major) and the Swedish edition Musicalia (chorale preludes). Finally, several works that are currently out of print were tracked down in old editions (Trio Sonata in G minor BWV 584, Chorale Preludes BWV 749, 750, 756, etc.) or photocopied from the manuscripts (Fugue BWV 581).

It’s better to draw a veil over the issue of the authenticity of certain works. Some of the chorale preludes may have been composed by Böhm, Johann Christoph Bach, Krebs or Fischer, or even by a much younger Johann Sebastian Bach, but no one can prove this beyond all shadow of a doubt. Bach knew and loved these composers’ works and often copied them out, and so this is a part of his musical universe in which I feel that I have no right to be the final arbiter. Marie-Claire Alain, 1967; Translation: Paula Kennedy>>

Contemporary View: Theological Aesthetics
‘The Complete Organ Works of Bach’

Beginning with the concept of "The Complete Organ Works of Bach," George Parsons in his recent liner notes to David Goode's on-going recorded set explores the related topics of "Genres, Styles and Influences," "Purposes," "A Note on Current Bach Scholarship," "Theological Aesthetics," and "Conclusion – Bach, and Belief." The unique combination of theology and aesthetics, Parsons believes, is in an important way to view Bach's organ works as an intrinsic motive for composing and performing this music, projecting a "a Christian Lutheran worldview through their specifically musical beauty," combining purpose and affect.

<<Given that strong foundation, it is no surprise that organ music flowed from Bach’s pen throughout his life. Yet how do Bach’s organ works cohere? For the monolithic notion of ‘The Complete Organ Works of Bach’ is misleading. The picture is more fluid, even unclear, both as to the veracity of individual works and of their particular chronology. The impression is of a combination of works that have reached us in their present form through an often uncertain process of revision and collection (such as the Six Sonatas, BWV 525 – 530) and those with a more definite origin and/or date, such as Clavierübung III, which was published in 1739. Even a collection with a clear didactic purpose that is apparently easy to date like the Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599 – 644 (its title page is dated to 1722 or 1723)⁴ can remain opaque in the chronology and detail of its contents: the title page was added later than the chorales it contains (Williams 2003 p. 227). Many of the preludes and fugues do not exist in autograph form, a fact that in most cases does not affect the question of authorship as much as that of the date of composition, although the authorship of some organ works previously assumed to have been by Bach have been called into question, like the Eight Short Preludes and Fugues, BWV 553 – 560. Others are easier by [p.3] virtue of their singularity either to ascribe authorship to, such as the Passacaglia, BWV 582, or to date, such as the Concerto Transcriptions, BWV 592 – 596, which are from Bach’s Weimar years (Williams 2003 p. 202). However, the fluidity of the corpus is not as interesting – or as significant – as the stylistic and generic variety it exhibits.

Genres, Styles and Influences

Bach’s organ works are characterised, typically for the composer, by a multiplicity of genres and stylistic influences. Broadly they can be categorised into five areas, though inevitably these overlap: 1. chorale-based works (preludes, partitas, variations, trios); 2. the Six Sonatas; 3. preludes/toccatas/fantasias (including the Passacaglia) and fugues (paired together, and single); 4. transcriptions of works by other composers (concertos, trios, etc.); 5. miscellaneous works (Allabreve, Canzona, Pièce D’Orgue, etc.). Williams catalogues the multifarious stylistic influences on Bach’s organ works.⁵ Many of these are traceable to other contemporary German organ composers whose compositional style Bach would almost certainly have known. As Williams states, these would have included Pachelbel, Böhm, Buxtehude, Bruhns, Reincken, Kerll and Froberger. Bach’s organ works also frequently betray a French influence, both specifically, such as in the famous example of the Passacaglia, BWV 582, the first half of whose main theme originates in a piece by Raison, and more generically, such as in the C minor Fantasia, BWV 562 with its stylistic debt to French composers such as de Grigny. In addition, an Italian influence is often felt in the manual writing across- the-board from the quasi-string writing in the Six Sonatas to the tripartite Toccata in C, BWV 564 via the Frescobaldian Canzona, BWV 588 and Corellian Allabreve, BWV 589.

Purposes

As the above discussion suggests, it is not surprising that many of the exact original purposes for the organ works remain unknown, though in general terms the following categories of use can be discerned: liturgical (many, if not most, of the chorales and chorale preludes; some of the prelude/toccata and fugue pairs); didactic (the Six Sonatas; the Orgelbüchlein); stylistic assimilation (the concerto transcriptions; some toccatas and fantasias; Legrenzi and Corelli Fugues). In addition, collections such as Clavierübung III and perhaps the Schübler Chorales had a purpose that transcended their immediate utility: the desire to offer a musical-theological compendium (Clavierübung III), or leave a musical legacy (Schübler Chorales).

A Note on Current Bach Scholarship

Such is the scope of Bach’s organ works. But how have they been covered in the literature? There is a fascinating dialectic evident in current Bach studies more broadly between a hermeneutic taken up with purely musical concerns for Bach’s works,⁶ and a broader analytical approach to his music that seeks to contextualize Bach’s contrapuntal, figurative and harmonic [p. 4] peculiarities and complexities within a much broader framework involving contemporary theology,7 aesthetics,⁸ philosophy,⁹ and science.¹⁰ Assessing these different approaches to Bach’s music is difficult, as the results are inevitably mixed. On the one hand, there is a need to maintain a degree of musical integrity by allowing the musical features of Bach’s compositions to come first in any attempt to understand them. Thus, some of the least convincing musical-analytical work done from the contextual side arises from an approach to Bach’s music that is too superficial. On the other hand, there is a sense in some of the ‘music-only’ approaches that any recourse to relevant external and contextual questions ought to be dismissed out of hand when clearly such factors occasionally – perhaps often – played a legitimate role in Bach’s compositional process. The ideal, then, seems to be to take an approach to describing Bach’s organ music that both honours the music itself whilst allowing for wider contextual questions to shape one’s thinking as appropriate, perhaps on a piece-by-piece basis. With that in mind, there seem to be two broad extra-musical contexts of particular relevance to the organ music of Bach in which purely musical observations can be worked out. These are theology, and aesthetics.

Theological Aesthetics

Peter Williams highlights a conundrum that needs tackling if one is to think theologically about Bach’s organ music, namely the tension that exists between Bach’s stated theological intention in composition (most famously revealed in the composer’s signature ‘S.D.G.’ – ‘Soli Deo Gloria’ (To God Alone Be Glory) – that has been found on some of Bach’s manuscripts, penned after the final bars) and the apparent self-interestedness of much of Bach’s music.¹¹ The key that unlocks this dilemma is the observation made by John Butt,¹² that for Bach, as for other Lutherans, music was intrinsically of eternal value. We can be more specific and outline two ways in which the inherent theological nature of music, as it was understood, appears to have influenced the music Bach actually wrote.

i) Music as Theological Metaphor: A theological idea that was found in the Leipzig circles in which Bach moved in the 1740s was that God’s beauty can be conceived conceptually as a type of harmonia: "God is a harmonic being. All harmony originates from his [p.5] wise order and organization... Where there is no conformity, there is also no order, no beauty, and no perfection. For beauty and perfection consists in the conformity of diversity."¹³
This fundamental idea of God’s beauty as expressed in His unity-in-diversity immediately invites the metaphorical projection of this concept onto His creation: His beauty is expressed though His creation via the same aesthetic of unity-in-diversity. While criticisms have been levelled at this definition of beauty when held as an absolute value, as an explanation of Bach’s contrapuntal practice, it is highly suggestive. This desire for art to imitate nature in its perfection motivated Bach’s musical project throughout his career and is particularly evident in his treatment of counterpoint: ‘[c]haracteristic of Bach’s manner of composing is a way of elaborating the musical ideas so as to penetrate the material deeply and exhaustively.’¹⁴ Bach’s maximization of thematic coherence, harmonic richness, and contrapuntal complexity can be thus understood as having a theological rationale. This rationale perhaps best fits the music with which there is no accompanying to direct one’s interpretation of the musical figures, and is particularly relevant in grasping the aesthetic behind specifically contrapuntal projects like The Art of Fugue.

ii) Music designed to move the Affections towards God
Ever since the discovery of Bach’s personal Bible commentary, the so-called ‘Calov Bible’, it has often been noted that Bach’s music appears to have been intended as an expression of a specifically, and personally-held, Lutheran faith.¹⁵ The implications of this in seeking an informed speculation of Bach’s theological views of music are significant. For the indications in Luther’s writings are not only that he saw music as inherently theological on a number of different levels,¹⁶ but specifically that he saw music as having a role in moving the believer’s affections towards God, and thus an ability to strengthen the believer’s faith in Christ.¹⁷ Combining this insight with the commonly-observed (though not unchallenged) evidence of the Baroque Affektenlehre (or ‘Doctrine of the Affections’) in Bach’s music, it can be seen how often Bach’s sacred music (chorale-based or liturgically-intended; often both) makes its spiritual utility felt through its projection of a relevant and (sometimes) dominant affekt. This primary affekt is then projected through the musical material, itself often consisting of harmonic and motivic workings-out of a single inventio, or dominant musical figure.¹⁸ In the organ [p.6] music, this notion is perhaps most useful in approaching the chorale preludes – a genre that covers many of the organ works – where in many cases the background text, where clear, often illuminates both the general affekt of a given prelude, and the specificity of particular harmonies and figurations that have been chosen to illustrate it.

Conclusion – Bach, Beauty and Belief

Although the label of ‘The Complete Organ Works of Bach’ for the corpus is a misnomer, there are still many varied ways in which to view it coherently; theological aesthetics is just one example. Theology and aesthetics combine throughout Bach’s organ music, uniting them as works that project a Christian Lutheran worldview through their specifically musical beauty. In this they serve as exemplars of the theology of another towering eighteenth-century Christian intellect, whose published thought also combined beauty and belief with an emphasis on the affections of the believer: the American pastor Jonathan Edwards, with whom Bach has once been compared.¹⁹ Edwards placed the affections-of-the-heart at the centre of his definition of genuine Christian experience, and thus taught that moving them God-ward was the primary aim of any means of grace in the church, whether preaching or music. As examples of Edward’s affection-driven theology in practice, the organ works of Bach clearly cohere in their common ability to promote both belief and beauty, or perhaps more accurately, belief through beauty. George Parsons, 2015>>

Theologian and preacher Edwards (1703-1758, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Edwards_%28theologian%29) led the "Great Awakening" revival in colonial America, "rooted in Reformed theology, the metaphysics of theological determinism, and the Puritan heritage," says Wikipedia. "Edwards grounded his life's work on conceptions of beauty, harmony, and ethical fittingness, and how central The Enlightenment was to his mindset."

Current Bach Scholarship

The stylus phantasticus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylus_fantasticus) in the free-organ works, as well as the chorale-based organ music, are driven by Bach's earliest experiences in the northern German tradition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_organ_schools). These have come under increasing scrutiny from Bach scholars, along with the authenticity of many hymn-based pieces being found in miscellaneous collections. The early free works are studies in composition and show pieces in tests of organs and for recitals. The chorale prelude "was a central feature of organ music in northern Germany in the period leading up to Bach," says Kenyon (Ibid.: 111), "widely cultivated," underpinning the liturgy, and "essential for the congregation's understanding of the sentiments of the hymns." The Bach early period of his student days at Ohrdruf and Lüneberg and his initial employment as organist in Arnstadt and brief return to Northern Germany in the winter of 1705-06 was a formative time, first described in the 1750/54 Obituary, under the influence of Böhm, Reincken, Buxtehude, and Bruhns, as well as Bach family members Johann Christoph (1642-1703) and Johann Michael (1648-1694). The earliest dated works to 1700 are organ tablatures of Buxtehude and Reincken in Bach's hand, recently discovered, while virtually all other early works are still not exactly dateable. Thus, "No historical narrative can provide an adequate account of Bach's extraordinarily rapid development between around 1700 and 1710," says Christine Blanken of the Leipzig Bach Archive in her Bach 333 article, "Bach and the North German Organ School" (Ibid.: 118ff). She also is preparing the next edition of the chorale-based works for the Neue Bach Ausgabe.²⁰

Emblematic of Bach's progress and mastery of form and style is his extended "Passacliga and Fugue in C Minor," BWV 582 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVoFLM_BDgs, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passacaglia_and_Fugue_in_C_minor,_BWV_582), says Blanken (Ibid. 118f), which may have developed over several years during the first decade of the 18th century and may show the direct influence of other composers. The North German tradition that drew Bach there involved the organists, their large and distinctive-sounding large organs, and a musical style, like Hamburg as the "Venice of the north," that embraced a multitude of styles, places and periods "and to do so in a most delightful way," says Blanken (Ibid.: 119). In particular are the ad-hoc performance practices such as ornamentation and improvisation with tempo, dynamics, and registration changes. The "lowest common denominator" of the works of the early period shows the tradition of the stylus phantasticus improvisatory, contrast style of the variations with their abrupt shifts in musical motifs and modulation, derived originally from the Italian toccata (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata). The essential new feature was the use of the pedal as an independent voice, reinforcing sounds at cadences, and harmonic effects such as pedal points. The influence of church music also impacted on the young Bach.

Johann Adam Reincken (1643-1722), a native of Holland (also with a strong organ tradition), was the brightest star in Hamburg, followed in nearby Lübeck with Franz Tunder (1614-1667, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Tunder) and Dietrich Buxtehude (c1637-1707, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieterich_Buxtehude. Best known music is Bach's chorale prelude "An Wassterflüssen Babylon," BWV 653 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MJO7kaOTaI), an improvisation based on Bach's early studies with Reincken 1702 and copied Reincken's version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1NePAB6138), as well as Bach's performance in 1720 in Hamburg of his work, which drew great praise from Reincken. While few manuscripts survive from this period, except for a Buxtehude collection, there are collections of works by their students and the Bach circle such as the Neumeister Collection of chorales for the church year, featuring the works of Sebastian and Johann Michael Bach (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neumeister_Collection), as well as the Andreas Bach Book and Möller Manuscript of works of Bach as well as Reincken, Buxtehude, Bruhns and Böhm and four anthologies of Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Walther) and his circle, observes Blanken (Ibid.: 123).²¹

FOOTNOTES

¹ Nicholas Kenyon, Bach 333, Bach: The Music https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8469462--bach-333-the-new-complete-edition).
² Richard D. P. Jones, The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. 1: 1695-1717, "Music to Delight the Spirit (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press).
³ Marie-Claire Alain, "Complete Organ Works on Erato/MHS - 1st Set; http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Alain.htm#Organ.
⁴ See Peter Williams, The Organ Music of J.S. Bach, Second Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 227.
⁵ See Peter Williams, Bach Organ Music (London: BBC Music Guides, 1972), p. 9.
⁶ The work of Peter Williams is helpful in this regard. See Peter Williams, The Organ Music of J.S. Bach, Second Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Peter Williams, J.S. Bach: A Life in Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
⁷ Theology: Eric Chafe, Analyzing Bach Cantatas (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000); Anne Leahy, ‘”Vor deinen Thron tret ich”: The Eschatological Significance of the Chorale Settings of the P271 Manuscript of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek’ in Bach, Vol. 37, No. 2 (2006), pp. 81 – 118; Timothy A. Smith, ‘Fugues Without Words: A Hearing of Four Fugues from “The Well Tempered Clavier” as Passion Music’ in Bach, Vol. 40, No. 2 (2009), pp. 45 – 66; Linda Gingrich, ‘Hidden Allegory in J.S Bach’s 1724 Trinity Season Chorale Cantatas’ in The Choral Journal, Vol. 51, No. 1 (August 2010), pp. 6 – 17.
⁸ Christoph Wolff, ‘Bach and the Idea of “Musical Perfection”’ in Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
⁹ See John Butt, ‘’A mind unconscious that it is calculating’? Bach and the rationalist philosophy of Wolff, Leibniz and Spinoza’ in John Butt (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Bach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
¹⁰ David Yearsley, Bach and the Meanings of Counterpoint (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
¹¹ See Williams, Bach Organ Music, pp. 10-11.
¹² See John Butt, ‘Bach’s metaphysics of music’ in Butt (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Bach, p. 53.
¹³ Georg Vensky, 1742. Like Bach, Vensky was a member of Lorenz Christoph Mizler’s Society for Musical Science. Quoted in Wolff, Learned Musician, p. 466.
¹⁴ Wolff, Learned Musician, p. 469.
¹⁵ See Robin A. Leaver, ‘Music and Lutheranism’ in Butt (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Bach , pp. 39 – 40.
¹⁶ Robin A. Leaver, Luther’s Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007).
¹⁷ See Luther’s directions to believers suffering depression: ‘When you are sad, therefore, and when melancholy threatens to get the upper hand, say: “Arise! I must play a song unto the Lord on my regal [...].” Then begin striking the keys and singing in accompaniment, as David and Elisha did, until your sad thoughts vanish.’ Martin Luther, Theodore G. Tappert (ed.), Letters of Spiritual Counsel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006) p. 97.
¹⁸ Laurence Dreyfus, Bach and the Patterns of Invention (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996).
¹⁹ Richard A. Spurgeon Hall, ‘Bach and Edwards on the Religious Affections’ in Johan Sebastian: A Tercentenary Celebration, ed. Seymour L. Benstock (Westport: Greenwood Press), pp. 69 – 81.
²⁰ Beginning in 1954, the modern edition of the Neue Bach Ausgabe (NBA) has published 11 volumes of 15 organ works NBA Revised Edition, Series IV, Organ Works (Bärenreiter, https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/catalogue/complete-editions/bach-johann-sebastian/nba/series-iv/); two volumes are 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/).
²¹ For further, related articles, see Bach 333, The New Complete Edition: Markus Zepf, "Organ Associated with Bach" in the Bach: The Life of essays from the Leipzig Bach Archive, (also co-author with Christoph Wolff, "The Organs of J. S, Bach: A Handbook, trans. Lynn Edwards Butler [Urbana: University of Illinois, 2012], and the related articles of Dorothea Schröder, "1695-1702, Apprenticeship in Ohrdruf and Lüneberg," and "1702-1702: Weimar and Arnstadt: the start of a professional career."