Secrets of Organ Playing Contest Week 78 submission--Dies sind die Heil'gen zehn Gebot' BWV 635 from Orgelbuchlein by J.S. Bach

Continuing in the order through the Orgelbuchlein by Bach, here is my submission for the secrets of Organ Playing contest Week 78.

The chorale tune is presented in a straight forward setting in the upper-most voice of the organ. However, the lower three voices produce a wild contrapuntal companion to the chorale tune. Based on the opening several pitches, the motive that we hear first in the bass and then alto parts is heard almost continuously or with some small variation to fit the harmonies throughout the work. The ten note motive, as Raymond Nagem points out in his blog on this work, "...is used both right-side up and in inversion, and it’s never for a moment absent until the very last bar. If you put words to it, you’d hear “These are the Holy Ten Commands” repeated incessantly throughout the whole piece. The point Bach makes here is that God’s commandments permeate everything. They run through the entire structure of the prelude, and, Bach suggests, inform all aspects of life. You might as well try to get away from them as give up oxygen for Lent."