January 29, 2021--Chorale Prelude on Christus, der uns selig macht by Georg Telemann

In high school, a piano teacher of mine gave me a Suite by Georg Phillip Telemann to learn. I regret not taking it seriously as I wanted to play more Romantic and "modern" (in my 15 year mind) music. A couple years ago, I purchased the complete collection of Telemann's music on CD, and was floored. I had encountered his Tafelmusik in college, but not his other music. I was happy to find in my organ collection a series of his chorale preludes the other day, and so began to work on them.

I think the most striking of the Chorale Preludes in the book I found was his setting of the Passion Chorale Christus, der uns selig macht ("Christ, who has us blessed made.") Telemann treats this chorale in a typical chorale prelude of his time: a section of imitative material that is eventually accompanied by the chorale tune in the soprano (highest part). My love for this piece began with the opening polyphony between the two lower voices. The upper part begins with a repeated pitch. The lower part imitates the upper voice, but at a hugely dissonant major seventh--surely this raised eye brows Telemann's day. Throughout the piece, the dissonant intervals pile upon each other and the imitative voices are highly chromatic. I somewhat think Telemann may have been thinking of the pain and suffering that is found in the original chorale in the third verse while he was composing this chorale:
"Then His holy Flesh was torn
With inhuman Lashes,
And His blessed Head in Scorn
Crowned of sinful Ashes"

It is dissonant and painful music, but music that captures the Passion so amazingly in such a "simple" setting.

I used the St. Moseley sample set from Hauptwerk for this recording. The registration was Principal 8' and 4' with Flutes 8' and 4' and Oboe and Clarinet 8' combination on a single manual.