FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 32/3

(AE37). Paraclete Press, sole selling agent. This arrangement

was conceived as a companion to the sixth of the "Schubler" chorales,

Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter (originally the second

movement of Cantata 137), and is an arrangement of the opening

choral movement that immediately precedes it. In the instrumental

ritornello, at least three significant affective motifs are employed,

but two of these (both broken-chord figures—one syncopated, the

other in descending sixteenths) are omitted. The remaining

dactylic figure is left to carry most of the rhythmic

burden, with monotonous persistence. For the vocal

statements, the transcriber has elected to omit passages

which contain one of Bach's most characteristic techniques,

where the successive chorale phrases each appear as the last

in a series of fugal entrances. In Bach's music, this

serves to impart great splendour to each individual phrase

of the chorale; but in the arrangement, this is lacking, and

the individual chorale phrases still appear in a somewhat

cluttered contrapuntal guise, without benefit of the

contrasting instrumental timbres (trumpets, oboes, strings,

etc.). The individual chorale phrases are not always readily

discernable in the score, and it would have been helpful had

they been set apart with strokes above the notes. Because

the piece is in C major, there are long stretches of "white

note" music in rapid motion, which does not normally lie

comfortably under the fingers.