Chorale Prelude on HERZLICH LIEB Uploaded by: DAJones565 Composer: * My Own Composition Organ: Laurenskerk - Main Organ - 1973 Marcussen & Son Software: Hauptwerk VII Views: 57
[7.1ch] Hereford Tromba Jazz Uploaded by: woody-mc Composer: * My Own Improvisation Organ: Hereford Cathedral Willis Organ Software: Hauptwerk IV Views: 90
Reflection (1977) Uploaded by: CarsonCooman Composer: Lane, Richard Organ: Hereford Cathedral Willis Organ Software: Hauptwerk IV Views: 497
Lament for Absalom (1962) Uploaded by: CarsonCooman Composer: McKay, George Frederick Organ: Hereford Cathedral Willis Organ Software: Hauptwerk IV Views: 660
I think this is one of the most poignant chorale preludes I know. Brahms didn't intend it for publication; it's probably one of the last pieces of music he wrote and he knew that the end was near. We (or, at least, I) mainly associate the tune with "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden," but, in fact, the mood of the words of "Herzlich tut" is actually very different: the writer is actually looking forward to death, which is why the last chord is sometimes played as a "tierce de Picardie." I hear the pulsing bass as a heartbeat which, a whole three (long) bars before the end, slows and finally stops altogether. I half expect to hear a long high note at the end like a heart monitor alarm!
I find it very odd that his other setting of the same chorale in Op122 is so different.