Rudolf Löw, O Mensch bewein dein Sünde gross

The Sächsische Landes- und Universitätsbibliothek in Dresden posesses a manuscript of 12 organ compositions by Rudolf Löw’s hand. It is his opus 1, which he dedicated to his teacher Carl Ferdinand Becker.

Löw mostly emplois forms and procedures from the Baroque era with a harmonic language that is sometimes slightly romantic. Löw’s choral prelude to “O Mensch bewein dein Sünde gross” is again a good example of Löw’s usage of form and idiom of the Baroque. The prelude is set up as a fughetta on the first phrase of the choral melody. There are 5 entries of the theme before the music comes to a conclusion. In the manuscript the pedals have rests till the fourth entry of the theme. That fourth entry is written on the middle stave, while the pedal stave remains empty. It is therefore not entirely clear wether the fourth entry is meant for the hands or that Löw wrote is by accident on the middle stave. I chose to render it as it is in the manuscript, with only the fifth entry for the pedals. It is however defendable to play already the fourth entry with the pedals.

The recording was done on the sample set of the Van Dam organ (1832) in Tholen by Voxus Organs for Hauptwerk.

Score
Löw, O Mensch bewein dein Sunden gross

Performance
Löw, O Mensch bewein dein Sunden gross

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