Prelude 1: "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm Ich her"

Christlieb Sigmund Binder (Dresden 1723-1789) was a German composer.
The son of an oboist, he probably received music instruction as a Dresden choirboy from Pantaleon Hebenstreit, to whom he was referred by the court in 1742 to learn his teacher’s dulcimer-like invention, the pantaleon. It was as a pantaleonist that he became a court musician in 1751, but he also performed as a harpsichordist. In 1764 he became second organist to Peter August in the court’s Catholic chapel, and he was first organist from August’s death in 1787; both were active as harpsichordists in Dresden’s public musical life.
Most of Binder’s career took place in the reign of Friedrich August III, an amateur musician, and his compositions reflect the court’s active interest in keyboard and chamber music. His extant works show a mixture of Empfindsamkeit and earlier Baroque elements, although they require greater virtuosity. The intense slow movements and the concentrated development of thematic material echo the style of C.P.E. Bach, but the keyboard figuration and choice of genres hark back to J.S. Bach; similarly, exact gradations of dynamics are interspersed with Baroque echo effects.
Although Binder was a prolific composer, his influence was virtually confined to Dresden; few of his works were published in his lifetime....