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| Bach’s title web page to the Orgelbüchlein |
Bach started his Orgelbüchlein while he was organist on the ducal court docket of Weimar. The plan was for 164 chorale preludes overlaying the complete church’s 12 months, however Bach solely accomplished 46 of them, but he tantalised posterity by itemizing the titles of all 164 preludes. The Orgelbüchlein challenge has invited up to date composers to finish the work.
Over greater than a decade, challenge director and organist William Whitehead has commissioned up to date composers resembling John Rutter, Judith Bingham, Sir Stephen Hough, Sally Beamish, Louis Andriessen, Daniel Kidane, Roxanna Panufnik and Nico Muhly to fill in these lacking items and rise to the challenge’s central problem: if Bach had been alive in the present day, how would possibly he go about writing a brief chorale prelude within the Orgelbüchlein fashion?
The result’s a brand new and full Orgelbüchlein for the twenty first century, a set of 164 quick chorale preludes containing an interesting cross-section of latest European kinds, along with newly edited variations of Bach’s authentic items: a grand homage to Bach, held collectively by the frequent thread of his authentic plan.
The finished Orgelbüchlein was first heard in Amsterdam in 2019 (at a nine-hour live performance given by 4 organists). The work can be receiving its UK premiere in September at a bunch of live shows offered by the Royal School of Organists. On Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September, 9 live shows at Temple Church, St Bride’s Church, Fleet Road, St. Andrew’s Church, Holborn, St James Garlickhythe, St Paul’s Cathedral, St George’s Church, Hanover Sq., Westminster Central Corridor, St James’s Palace Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey, the whole Orgelbüchlein can be offered.
Full particulars from the RCO web site.
