Chorale prelude

In music, a chorale prelude is a short liturgical composition for organ using a

chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque era and
reached its culmination in the works of J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 (with a 47th
unfinished) examples of the form in his Orgelbüchlein,[1] along with multiple other
works of the type in other collections.

Contents
Function
Style
Baroque period
Romantic period and twentieth century Autograph manuscript of the chorale
Johannes Brahms prelude Wie schön leuchtet der
Max Reger Morgenstern, BWV 739, 1705
See also
References

Function
The liturgical function of a chorale prelude in the Baroque period is debated. One possibility is that they were used to introduce the
hymn about to be sung by the congregation, usually in aProtestant, and originally in a Lutheran, church.

Style
Chorale preludes are typically polyphonic settings, with a chorale tune, plainly audible and often ornamented, used as cantus firmus.
Accompanying motifs are usually derived from contrapuntal manipulations of the chorale melody
.

Notable composers of chorale preludes during the Baroque period include Dieterich Buxtehude, Johann Pachelbel and Johann
, including works by Johannes Brahms and Max Reger.[2]
Sebastian Bach. Examples also exist from the late 19th century

Baroque period
Among the old masters who wrote chorale preludes is Samuel Scheidt.[3][4] His Tabulatura Nova, containing several such works, was
published in 1624.[3][5]

Chorale preludes also appear in the works of Dieterich Buxtehude. Over 40 chorale preludes by Buxtehude have survived to this
day.[6][7]

Johann Pachelbel's compositions are another example of the form, with many of his chorale preludes elaborating upon Protestant
chorale melodies.[8]

The best-known composer of chorale preludes isJohann Sebastian Bach.[9] His earliest extant compositions, works for organ which he
possibly wrote before his fifteenth birthday,include the chorale preludesBWV 700, 724, 1091, 1094, 1097, 1112, 1113 and 1119.[10]
Bach’s treatment of the chorale prelude form exhibit the most
astonishing range and variety of compositional techniques. In his early
Orgelbüchlein (1708-1717), the chorale melody is usually in the upper
part and the accompanying lower parts, while being highly elaborate
in their harmonic and contrapuntal detail, the beginnings and endings
of phrases generally coincide with those of the chorale. An example is
"Jesu, meine Freude", where the chorale melody in the upper part is
supported by a closely woven and harmonically subtle counterpoint in
three parts:

Title page of Scheidt's Tabulatura Nova

O Lamm Gottes unschuldig, BWV

1095
0:00

One of the Neumeister Chorales by

Johann Sebastian Bach, performed
by Ulrich Metzner

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Jesu, meine Freude from the Orgelbuchlein.Listen

Peter Williams (1972, p. 27) says of the Orgelbüchlein: “Each approach to Bach’s organ
chorales – their beauty, their ‘symbolism’, their mastery- is rewarding.” [11] Williams continues
(1972, p29) “One of the most remarkable features of most of the settings is that the
accompaniment and the motifs from which it is composed are newly invented and are not
related thematically to the melody.”

By contrast, in the prelude on Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 645) from the set of six
Schübler Chorales, taken from earlier cantata movements, the accompaniment is a free-flowing
obbligato which both derives from the chorale melody, yet seems to float independently over it.
"The achieving of a melody independent of the cantus firmus, though in principle it is familiar
in obbligato arias, is here unusually complete." [12] Julian Mincham (2010) sees an asymmetry
here that is possibly rooted in the chorale itself “with its slightly puzzling mixture of different
phrase lengths”:[13]

The only known painting of

Buxtehude (detail,
Johannes Voorhout, 1674)

Chorale melody (cantus firmus)Wachet auf.

Two melodic ideas from the chorale, labelled (a) and (b) above are embedded in the
obbligato line:

0:00

J.S.Bach, from chorale prelude

̊Wachet auf'
 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme(BWV 645)

Mincham says that while “theme and chorale are not designed to begin and end together… [they] fit together perfectly. Get to know
the chorale and ritornello melodies well and the apparently effortless ways in which they inter-relate will become obvious. The
[13]
important point is that they seem not to fit; but they do.”

Romantic period and twentieth century

There are several examples of 19th- and 20th-century chorale preludes,
O Gott, du frommer Gott, Op. 122
such as the Eleven Chorale Preludesby Johannes Brahms, Max Reger's No. 7
and Samuel Barber's.[14] Works such as these continue to be produced
0:00
nowadays such as Helmut Walcha's four volumes[15] and the seven
volumes of Flor Peeters.[16] Performed by Matthias Flierl

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Johannes Brahms
See Eleven Chorale Preludes.

Max Reger
Reger composed, among others, 52 chorale preludes, Op. 67, Chorale Preludes for Organ, Op. 79b (1900–04) and 30 small chorale
preludes, Op. 135a (1914).

See also
Chorale composition

References
1. Grout, Donald J. & Claude V. Palisca, A History of the Western Music 7th edition, Norton, London, 2006. ISBN 978-0-
393-97527-7
2. "Chorale prelude" (https://www.britannica.com/art/chorale-prelude). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 9 November
2017.
3. August Gottfried Ritter. Zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels. Leipzig: Max Hesse, 1884.: Scores at the International Music
Score Library Project (IMSLP)
4. Karl Straube. Choralvorspiele alter Meister. Edition Peters, 1907.: Scores at the International Music Score Library
Project (IMSLP)
 5. Samuel Scheidt. Tabulatura Nova. Hamburg: Michael Hering, 1624.: Scores at the International Music Score Library
Project (IMSLP)
6. Snyder, Kerala J. Dieterich Buxtehude: Organist in Lübeck. New York: Schirmer Books, 1987.
7. Sadie, Stanley and John Tyrell (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,2nd edition, Oxford
University Press, 2001.
8. Melville, Ruth. The Chorale Preludes of Johann Pachelbel. "Bulletin of the American Musicological Society
, Nº3,
pp.11–12. Apr., 1939.
9. "Bach - Chorales: a guide"(http://www.classicfm.com/composers/bach/guides/chorales-guide/). Classic FM.
Retrieved 2 December 2017.
10. Works 0820 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000820?lang=en), 0847 (http://www.bachdi
gital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000847?lang=en), 1277 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWor
k_work_00001277?lang=en), 1280 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001280?lang=en),
1283 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001283?lang=en), 1298 (http://www.bachdigital.de/
receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001298?lang=en), 1299 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_
00001299?lang=en) and 1305 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001305?lang=en)at Bach
Digital website
11. Williams, P. Bach Organ Music. London, BBC.
12. Williams, P. (1980, p.112) The Organ Music of J.S. Bach: Vol. II, Works based on Chorales. Cambridge University
Press.
13. Mincham, Julian (2010)."Chapter 55 BWV 140 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme / Awake! The Watchman′s voice
commands us" (http://www.jsbachcantatas.com/documents/chapter-55-bwv-140.htm). Retrieved 4 March 2016.
14. Barber, Samuel. Dei Natali (Chorale Preludes for Christmas), 1960.
15. Chorale Prelude by Helmut Walcha - recordings, Cat. Opal-Libraries.org. Frankfurt, 1980(http://cat.opal-libraries.org/r
ecord=b1100821)
16. "Peeters: menu Organmusic"(http://users.telenet.be/pima/indexE.htm). Retrieved 2009-03-05.

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