BWV 1128! Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält (J.S. Bach) @Wollongong Town Hall

This is perhaps one of J.S. Bach’s most interesting organ compositions. It was probably composed between 1705-1710, a time when he was in his twenties, and the piece reflects this with its youthful vigour and experimentation within the North German organ style of Buxtehude. The chorale prelude is based on a Lutheran hymn whose text is a paraphrase of Psalm 124 – Bach also used this hymn for the basis of his Cantata BWV 178. It was assigned the BWV number 1128 (formerly Anh. 71) since its authenticity was only confirmed in 2008 with the emergence of a copy of the manuscript at an auction. There are perhaps three distinct sections of the work. The first section features the embellished melody surrounded by interludes and contrapuntal imitations. The second is an echo section, featuring near-exact restatements of musical phrases as an “echo”. This old technique, best used by Sweelinck, was rarely used in Bach’s later works. The final section returns to the solo embellished melody with accompaniments, but stretches the limitations of ornamentation and the player with hand-crossings, scales in contrary motion down the entire length of the keyboard, and more elaborate and clever counterpoint with difficult pedal lines. Performed on the Neo-Baroque Sharp Organ at Wollongong Town Hall. If you enjoy this video, please subscribe to Pep Organ for a new upload every Saturday. #PepOrgan