Heinrich Nicolaus Gerber, Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh allzeit

by admin · April 6, 2025

Heinrich Nicolaus Gerber (1702 – 1775) was a German composer and organist. He received his first musical education from Irrgang in Bellstedt. In 1717 he went to Mühlhausen, where he found a stimulating musical environment and met Johann Friedrich Bach. In 1724 Gerber went to Leipzig University to study law. In the same year he became a private pupil of J.S. Bach, who taught him keyboard and figured bass. Gerber wrote numerous keyboard works, both for organ and harpsichord, as well as church music. Besides composing his own compositions, he also transcribed many compositions of other composers, not only J.S. Bach but many other contemporaries as well.

Manuscript D-LEb Rara I, 19, owned by the Bach Archiv in Leipzig is one of the manuscripst Gerber was the scribe of. It contains music by Kaufmann, Adlung, Kellner, Bach and two compositions by Gerber himself. This choral prelude on the melody of “Was mein Gott will, das gescheh allzeit” is one of them. It is scored for organ and oboe. And it is probably not a coincidence that the one compositions by Kaufmann that is also score for organ and oboe is part of this manuscript as well.

I made the recording by first playing the organ part and combining it later with the oboe part. For the video-recording I did the same. The visual effect I aimed for is having three hand to play this piece. The video compositing is far from perfect, yet the general idea comes across well enough. Zaphod Beeblebrox plays the organ, yeah…

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
Gerber, Was mein Gott will, das gescheh allzeit