Präludium und Fuge "Herzlich lieb hab ich Dich, o Herr"

I love you dearly, O Lord - the beautiful chorale is the Lutheran hymn in Amberg 1569 written by Martin Schalling, a Protestant reformer.
It is sung in Protestant churches on many occasions, often also at funeral services - then after the words "Ach Herr lass dein lieb Engelein".
The song has been set to music by many composers, including J.S.Bach (BWV 340 / 1115).

The present piece of music is my op.2 No.8 and is the conclusion of my sacred preludes and fugues. It is the most complex composition of this series, not only in terms of playing time (more than 13 minutes) but also in terms of tonality.

The piece begins with a French overture in the full organ, which is characterized by sharply dotted rhythm under the very high melody of the chorale. It has the form A-B-A-B-A, whereby B - as in my other works - already anticipates the polyphonic play of the following fugue. Here I play with unusual harmonic sequences that wander through the entire circle of fifths. The most distant part is the music in A flat minor, which is a tritone far from D major - very unusual - but somehow also interesting, isn't it?

There is not much to say about the fugue, it runs like a perpetuum mobile and ends with full organ and the extended chorale melody in the pedal.
The chorale deliberately emphasizes the melody, while the 3 other voices are discreetly withdrawn.

I played the piece with the beautiful sample of the baroque Skrzatusz organ (thanks to Piotr).

This time the notes and a "dry" SMF Type 0 are attached. Maybe someone would like to have the piece played back on another sample.

So - have fun listening and a nice weekend to everybody full of organ music!