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Bach's BWV 611 - and a question My best Christmas wishes to you all! Two items below: Bach's BWV 611 - and: "what happened to David Lamb (Agnus_Dei)???" (I hope all hyperlinks below work as they should!) 1. Bach's “Christum, wir sollen loben schon” (BWV 611) I spent most of the Christmas season being intrigued by Johann Sebastian Bach's “Christum, wir sollen loben schon” (BWV 611) for four voices, where the melody braids itself through the composition in the Alto voice, the only time in his Orgelbüchlein. Listening to the entire soundscape of the composition, it seems this marvellous chorale could come straight from one of his Cantatas or from his Oratorio like the St Matthew Passion. Listening to the various recordings present on YouTube and the Contrebombarde submissions, I found only one or two rare recordings where the Alto voice is represented as a Cantus Firmus on a separate keyboard. The best and most striking interpretation is from 2021 by our French colleague Jean-Pierre Silvestre: https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/47986 Executing BWV 611 with an outspoken C.F. can only be achieved using a technique called "thumbing down" or "thumbing up", where the melody is played on a seperate keyboard by mainly using the thumb which strays from the main keyboard to a second keyboard - a feat I cannot accomplish with my current self-built set-up - my keyboards are too far apart from each other. The technique is extensively discussed and demonstrated here: https://bachorgelbuchlein.wordpress.com/2019/02/16/day-13-christum-wir-sollen-loben-schon-bwv-611/ Here's a second discussion of the ins and outs of BWV 611: http://en.instr.scorser.com/CC/All/Johann+Sebastian+Bach/Orgelb%C3%BCchlein.html 2. What happened to David Lamb (Agnus_Dei)??? There has been a surprisingly long "radio silence" from Contrebombarde's most frequent contributor Agnus_Dei, or David Lamb. I hope he's allright. Does anyone know whether he is OK??? best wishes for 2024! Jack	by jacko Dec 25, 2023 03:33 PM
Replies (5)
RE: Bach's BWV 611 - and a question "Executing BWV 611 with an outspoken C.F. can only be achieved using a technique called "thumbing down" or "thumbing up", where the melody is played on a seperate keyboard by mainly using the thumb which strays from the main keyboard to a second keyboard - a feat I cannot accomplish with my current self-built set-up - my keyboards are too far apart from each other." Given the manuscript is transmitted on two staves without explicit indication of pedal (see https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/d/de/IMSLP111279-PMLP08213-BWV611.pdf), you could take the CF using a high pedal stop instead of thumbing down. I find that much easier - though reading something other than the bottom part as the pedal takes some practice, it's a handy (pun intended) technique. Scheidt was quite the fan of playing in that fashion. Reading hymns while playing tenor, alto, or soprano in the pedal makes for good practice. I've posted many Johann Michael Bach chorale preludes with the soprano cantus planus "poached" on a pedal stop, and here's the technique to turn a Buxtehude choral into a trio: https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/36695	by Hoofdwerk Dec 30, 2023 12:48 PM

RE: Bach's BWV 611 - and a question Hoofdwerk wrote: "Executing BWV 611 with an outspoken C.F. can only be achieved using a technique called "thumbing down" or "thumbing up", where the melody is played on a seperate keyboard by mainly using the thumb which strays from the main keyboard to a second keyboard - a feat I cannot accomplish with my current self-built set-up - my keyboards are too far apart from each other." Given the manuscript is transmitted on two staves without explicit indication of pedal (see https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/d/de/IMSLP111279-PMLP08213-BWV611.pdf), you could take the CF using a high pedal stop instead of thumbing down. I find that much easier - though reading something other than the bottom part as the pedal takes some practice, it's a handy (pun intended) technique. Scheidt was quite the fan of playing in that fashion. Reading hymns while playing tenor, alto, or soprano in the pedal makes for good practice. I've posted many Johann Michael Bach chorale preludes with the soprano cantus planus "poached" on a pedal stop, and here's the technique to turn a Buxtehude choral into a trio: https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/36695 Thank you, Erik. But ---- did you scrutinize the printed score? It's fine to speculate on playing the CF in the pedals, but this is impossible in BWWV 611: your feet are fully occupied playing the base lines of the composition. best wishes for the New Year! Jack	by jacko Dec 30, 2023 05:12 PM

RE: Bach's BWV 611 - and a question jacko wrote: Thank you, Erik. But ---- did you scrutinize the printed score? It's fine to speculate on playing the CF in the pedals, but this is impossible in BWWV 611: your feet are fully occupied playing the base lines of the composition. best wishes for the New Year! Jack You're right, of course. I managed to totally confuse that setting with something else! How embarrassing.	by Hoofdwerk Dec 30, 2023 05:52 PM

RE: Bach's BWV 611 - and a question To play the Alto voice separately, as demonstrated in your first link, you don‘t need a special playing technique, only computer skills (it‘s a MIDI file).	by tf11972 Dec 31, 2023 05:29 PM

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