Johann Christoph Oley, O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid
In 2015 and 2016 I published over 20 chorale preludes composed by Johann Christoph Oley (1738 – 1789) and created an edition that contained them all (https://partitura.org/index.php/johann-christoph-oley-variierte-chorale/). Recently I found a manuscript (Ec 266.1.1 owned by the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Bonn) that contains 14 more chorale preludes b y Oley. Today I publish the first from these 14 chorale preludes.
The first chorale prelude from manuscript Ec 266.1.1 is based on the melody of “O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid”. It turns out that this prelude is also a part of the collection I transcribed 8 years ago. Somehow, however, I forgot to publish this one. So the score I publish today is actually a score I created almost 8 years ago.
Oley wrote a simple yet evocative prelude based on this chorale. The melody is played with the left hand, while feet and right hand each play one part, creting a trio-like structure. To emphasize the “Traurigkeit” and “Herzeleid” Oley writes chromatic parts for both the right hand and the feet. A simple construction, yet very effective.
The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sample set of the Holzey organ of St. Peter and Paul in Weissenau by Prospectum (https://www.prospectum.com/index.php?language=english&id1=2&id2=9).
