Anonymus, Erhalt uns Herr bei deinen Wort (Lynar B7)

Manuscript Ms Lynar B7 (the seventh of the so-called Lübbenauer Orgeltabulaturen) contains 5 anonymous choral preludes/variations to Psalms and one to the choral “Erhalt uns Herr”. They were probably composed by a contemporary or a student of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck.

“Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort” is not a psalm, but a hymn written by Marten Luther on a melody by Johann Walther. Though it can be sung (and probably was) on the melody of Psalm 134 as well, which is probably the reason it was included in the collection of Psalm-variations in Ms Lynar B7. The composition is one continuous piece, yet consists of three variations on the choral melody and all three have the choral melody in the upper voice. The first variation could be played with the bass voice in he pedals. I decided against doing that because the pedals would be unpractical in the other two variations and the composition is written as one continuous piece.

It is an elegantly written piece and especially the first variation is cleverly constructed with motifs from the choral melody appearing in al the other voices. The rythmic intensity increases during the composition, culminating in some fast runs in the bass voice.

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Sonus Paradisi, of the Klapmeyer organ in the St. Nikolai church in Altenbruch (https://www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/germany/klapmeyer-organ-altenbruch.html).

Score
Anonymus (Lynar B7), Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort

Performance

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