Psalm 66 (Ms Lynar B7)

The Lynar manuscripts were preserved in the holdings of the Duke of Lynar in Lübbenau, and are therefore also known as the Lübbenauer Orgeltabulaturen. The seventh manuscript in the B-series contains 5 anonymous choral preludes/variations to Psalms. As Psalms were and are widely sung in the protestatns churches in the Netherlands this fits with the supposition that the composer or composers of these works must have been student of Sweelinck.

The first composition from this manuscript is a set of two variations on Psalm 66. The first one of these could be played with the pedals and the psalm melody as a solo voice. The manuscript offers no indication that it is meant to be played like this, so I created two versions of the score: one with three stafes for this first variation and one with two two stafes. In my performance I play the version with three stafes and thus with a solo voice for the psalm melody. The music is not as refined as for example Buxtehude could write it, but some of the techniques (fore-imitation, subtke embelishment of the solo voice) are also present in this composition. The second variation is definately a manualiter piece, with lots of scale passages. It's actually quite a difficult piece to play with one bar of paralel thirds in sixteenth notes and a sudden meter change from two to three and back.

The other pieces from this manuscript are not easy to play either, so they will follow slowly over the course of the next weeks, or perhaps months.

Score available here: http://partitura.org/index.php/anonymus-psalm-66-ms-lynar-b7/