Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, Preludio et Capriccio

The chorale preludes by the hand of Friedrich WIlherlm Marpurg I published till now, were all from his two volumes of “Versuch in figurierten Choräle”. The subtitle of both volumes says: “sowohl für die Orgel, als für das clavichord”. Or in English, both for the organ and for the klavichord. Those two instruments are of course very much alike from the perspective of playing technique, and it’s worth the trouble to point out to possible customers that the music is fit to be played on both instruments.

Something similar can often be seen with music for the harpsichord. Music for the harpsichord can often be played on the organ as well. And old editions with music for the harpsichord often state that the music can be played on the organ as well. It doesn’t hurt to possibly increase the sales.

The Bibliothèque National de France owns an old edition of compositions by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, called “Fughe and Capricci per l’clavicembalo o per l’organo”. In English “Fugues and capricci for the harpsichord or for the organ”. The music was written for the harpsichord and don’t require the use of the pedals. Since the volume contains fugues and capricci, which in this case are just a sort of up tempo fugues, the music sounds good on the organ as well.

The first composition is called “Preludio et Capriccio”. The combination sounds perhaps odd, but as the capricci from this volume are actually fugues (in a fast tempo), this actually stands for a good old fashioned prelude and fugue. The prelude is in a slow tempo, meditative and almost like an improvisation. The capriccio is a lively piece of music where the fugue theme or motifs derived from the theme are present in almost every bar.

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Sonus Paradisi, of the Janke organ in the Stadtkirche of Bückeburg (https://www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/germany/buckeburg-janke-organ.html).

Score
Marpurg, Preludio et Capriccio

Performance

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