February 6, 2021--Chorale Prelude on O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig by G.P. Telemann

A huge blunder today. I went to record my Secrets of Organ Playing Contest submission only to return home to find out that the recording didn't take (there was video but no audio on the computer). As I am working through the easy preludes of Telemann (that is the name of the book), I decided that I would not skip a day and recorded this chorale prelude.

This is one of my favorite lenten chorales. In English it translates to O Lamb of God, Innocent. Telemann sets his chorale in slow moving notes (whole notes) over the top of a two part polyphony. I think this is Telemann looking backward, as it feels more like Renaissance polyphony than the faster moving Baroque polyphony that he employs in some of his other chorale preludes. It has a solidness, a solemnity, that mirrors the text of the original chorale:
O Lamb of God, most stainless!
Who on the Cross didst languish,
Patient through all Thy sorrows.
Though mocked amid Thine anguish;
Our sins Thou bearest for us,
Else had despair reigned o'er us:
Have mercy upon us, O Jesu!
Grant us Thy peace today, O Jesu!

I used Piotr Grabowski's Skrzatusz Hauptwerk Sample Set in this recording. My registration for this piece I chose to go for that solemnity and patience of the hymn tune: 16'Bourdon, 8' Harmonic Flute, and 8' Fugara.