Thank you for introducing me to the organ music of August Hugo Distler. This is a remarkable composition and I was interested to read that his works are a re-invention of old forms and genres, rich with word painting, and often based on the music of Heinrich Schütz and other early composers. Distler's music is polyphonic and frequently melismatic, as well as often based on the pentatonic scale. Although his works remain 'tonally anchored', they nevertheless reveal 'an innovative harmonic sense' which resulted in his music being stigmatized by some Nazis as 'degenerate art'. How tragic that he committed suicide in 1942 at the age of 34 because he seemingly saw the futility of attempting to serve both God and Nazis. The American musicologist, Nick Strimple, stated in 2005 that this was probably how Distler "came to terms with his own conscience unequivocally".
