#simonlumby #bach #organmusic #hauptwerk #nottinghammidiorgans
'Bist du bei mir' (from the Anna Magdalena Clavier Book) BWV 508 arranged by Harvey Grace BWV 508
20th August 2023 - 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Salisbury Cathedral, UK, ‘Father’ Henry Willis, 1876 (Milan Digital Audio)
Played on my ‘Trent Series’ console, made by Nottingham Midi Organs (www.nottinghammidiorgans.co.uk)
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“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” - Johann Sebastian Bach
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If Bach had written just one instantly singable tune, it would surely have been ‘Bist du bei mir?’ Unfortunately not! Although Bach did have a hand in it, the song itself comes from an aria by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel in his opera, ‘Diomedes’, first staged on 16 November 1718. However, the theme was a wonderful choice to open Bach’s gift ‘Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena’, his second wife: a simple song of gratitude, trust, faith in God and faith in Anna. There has been some speculation as to how this aria came to be known in the Bach household in mid-1730s Leipzig, when Anna Magdalena copied an arrangement of the aria into her second notebook. Modern scholarship has shown that from the 1720s to the mid 1730s, at least several dozen to perhaps over a hundred of Stölzel's compositions were adopted by Bach or his family members in their public and private music practices. Only indirect evidence suggests how such music was transferred from Stölzel to the Bachs; but it is known that Bach and Stölzel were in the same places at different times, and shared acquaintances . . . but whether they met in person can only be surmised.
Although Anna Magdalena gave up her successful public singing career when they moved to Leipzig, she joined her husband in running a thriving music business, alongside looking after a very large and growing family. There are at least two tangible traces of their married life in the form of two Notenbüchlein from 1722 and 1725. Whereas the first Notenbüchlein was still a sort of notebook, containing things like early versions of five ‘French Suites’, the second one was definitely intended as a gift from Johann Sebastian to his wife. In fair copy, he notated two Partitas and all sorts of other music of Anna Magdalena’s own choosing. ‘Bist du bei mir, geh ich mit Freuden’ (If you are with me, I go with joy) is now best known in the version of BWV 508, an arrangement for voice and continuo found as No. 25 in the 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.
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“Beloved Bach” was commissioned from me in 2022 as a Golden Wedding Anniversary present from a man to his wife: I was asked to record one piece of Bach organ music for her every week for a year - and that each recording should be ‘delivered’ every Sunday. The lady who is the beneficiary of this quite extraordinary gift is a very knowledgeable devotee of the great Baroque Master and always referred to her favourite composer as her true 'Beloved'.
I know that every organist is a Bach expert (or at least commonly has firm opinions on how the music should be played and interpreted) however these recordings are not offered in any way to proclaim myself as some kind of Bach specialist - rather just as someone who shares with the recipient of this extraordinary gift a love of this astonishing music. As these videos are being released throughout the year, one on each Sunday of the liturgical calendar, some pieces are particular or relevant to that specific release day while others are not chosen with this in mind. Many of the pieces that are in this collection were chosen with a certain amount of knowledge of the person to whom this gift is dedicated, in as much as many of her favourites (some of which are lesser-known pieces) are included. All the recordings are ‘live’ in as much as my limited knowledge of videography hasn’t expanded yet to ‘splicing’, however where there are two movement pieces, generally there were two separate takes. I hope you enjoy these recordings - please subscribe to be notified when each new recording is released.
15 сен 2024
