Christian Gotthilf Tag, Was Got tuth das ist wohlgetan

Christian Gotthilf Tag (1735 – 1811) was a German Kantor and composer. On the age of twenty he became Kantor and schoolteacher in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, where he remained until his retirement in 1808. During his life he established an outstanding reputation as a Kantor and organist. Tag was a prolific composer of Kantorenmusik in a style combining elements of the Baroque and Empfindsamkeit. In his organ compositions he used orchestral and keyboard music techniques of the Rococo and empfindsamer Stil.

Several small collections of choral preludes by his hand survive in libraries. One such collection is the manuscript Becker III.8.66, held by the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden. It contains 5 choral preludes composed by Tag. The prelude to “Was Gott tuth das ist wohlgetan” is the first of these five. It is a nice example of the combination of Baroque techniques and forms with the more simple harmonic language of the galant period. The chorale melody is accompanied by a lively part for the right hand, with lots of trills and turns. The harmonic language may be simple, but this composition is actually quite tricky to play. It has a very open texture and it takes some practice to get all the trills and turns cleanly in the right spot. The result however, is quite charming.

The recording was done with the sample set of the Silbermann organ of the Stadtkirche Zöblitz by Prospectum.

Score
Tag, Was Gott tuth, das ist wohlgetan

Performance

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