Bach: The Orgelbï¿1/2chlein [Paperback]

Russell Stinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 1999

This is the first book-length study of the Orgelb�chlein, the masterful collection of organ chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach. This 'Little Organ Book' is regarded by Bach scholars as one of the composer's most important achievements and by organ scholars as a milestone in the development of the chorale. In this lucid and absorbing book Russell Stinson, himself an organist, examines the collection from a range of historical and analytical perspectives in a way that will resonate with not only organists and scholars but the average concert-goer or CD-buyer with an interest in the instrument and its music.

The books begins with a discussion of Bach's reasons for compiling the collection and his original plans to create a comprehensive set of 164 chorales. Stinson then examines the composer's compositional process in the collection and considers the music in its historical context with attention to each of the three types of chorale: the melody chorale, the ornamental chorale, and the chorale canon. In the next chapters the author looks at each of the forty-six individual compositions, illuminating the structure of each and tracing the evolution through the set of Bach's concept of chorale. The book concludes with a discussion of the Orgelb�chlein's reception from the eighteenth century to the present. The appendix includes a complete score of the chorale 'Ich ruf zu dir' as arranged by C.P.E. Bach and a list of published transcriptions of the chorales for other instruments.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"All organists will benefit from reading this."--Early Music Review

About the Author

Russell Stinson is Associate Professor of Music and College Organist at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. He is the author of The Bach Manuscripts of Johann Peter Kellner and His Circle and his articles on Bach's music have appeared in Early Music, The Musical Quarterly, the Bach-Jahrbuch, and other scholarly journals. elsewhere. He has performed selections from the Orgelb�chlein in organ recitals from coast to coast.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019386214X
• ISBN-13: 978-0193862142
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,318,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Russell Stinson and Bach's "Orgelbuchlein", October 25, 2011

By 

David L. Mitchell - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bach: The Orgelbï¿1/2chlein (Paperback)

Russell Stinson and Bach's "Orgelbuchlein"

Johann Sebastian Bach's Orgelbuchlein is one of the most important compilations of chorale preludes in all the repertory of organ music. Every serious organist must encounter the Orgelbuchlein in some way and almost every organist draws from this collection many times throughout his or her career as a church musician.

Bach spent a lot of time creating these forty-five settings. Why? The general scholarly consensus over the years is that the Orgelbuchlein had a didactic purpose, demonstrating the many ways an organist could decorate congregational hymns either to introduce the hymns before the congregation sang them or to be played as an organ verse. (Chorales often included ten or more stanzas and rarely were any omitted during the three hour Lutheran services. Tedium while singing chorales was relieved by an alternatim style in which stanzas would alternate between congregation, choir and organ solo.)

As was often his wont when preparing sets of pieces, Bach employed a large variety of styles in Orgelbuchlein, from complex counterpoint to only slightly elaborated homophony, and equally varied moods from ecstatic to quietly introspective, at the same time drawing on a large pool of musical imagery to portray the text being interpreted by the music.

Russell Stinson has spent many years studying and researching Bach materials, and he provides many good insights. However I find his writing style here unfocused and undisciplined, too often including material that offers little illumination on the subject at hand. For instance, in his discussions of two of the chorale preludes (BWV #'s 601 and 635) Stinson mentions that the pedal line can be easily played by alternate feet. Here the reader gets the impression that organ playing issues will be a feature as the study progresses. However alternate-foot pedaling is not mentioned again until quite a bit later (p.154) when Stinson points out that alternate-foot pedaling was an important aspect of baroque organ playing technique. Surely others of these chorale settings lend themselves just as well to this approach. Why was it mentioned in these two instances but no others? It provides no special enlightenment about the music and does little more than clutter up the text.

In other cases Stinson makes important claims without providing any supporting rationalization. Especially notable in this regard are his comments concerning conflicting rhythms. This performance practice issue has been hotly debated for many years and is found in three of the Orgelbuchlein chorales (BWV no's 608, 617 & 624). It needed more detailed treatment by Dr. Stinson, who suggested that no's 608 and 624 could be played either literally or assimilated, while the conflicting rhythms in BWV 617 "should no doubt" be assimilated (p.128) but provided no rationale for this declaration. This reviewer disagrees with Stinson with respect to BWV 617 and would have appreciated some explanation for his conclusion - - especially since the author promised (p.xv) to provide fresh insights into performance practice issues in the Orgelbuchlein. If any single issue in the Orgelbuchlein deserved more in-depth treatment, this is it, and its omission is very disappointing.

In several of the chorale settings, Stinson refers to the musical gestures representing images associated with the text. Much has been written about Bach's use of imagery, especially in the Orgelbuchlein, but here, again, Stinson fails to employ this line of investigation consistently.

Organists will find worthwhile information in this book, but they would have benefited much more had the author spent less time with coincidentals and more time with essentials, following a consistent focus in his discussion.

David L. Mitchell,
Madison, Maine