Johann Gottfried Walther, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, vers 1

It is now four and a half year ago I started publishing organ scores, typeset from manuscripts sources. Most of the source material available originated in the Baroque area in Germany, so my publishing efforts naturally gear towards music from that periode. A lot of that music is based on the melodies of the hymns sung in chuch. Although a lot of the music is 300 to 400 years old, the melodies it is based on are still sung today in churches. Besides that it is often beautiful music, the compositions can still be used in church services.

In publishing choral preludes I loosely follow the church year. Especially around Christmas in the last four years I made a series of several dozens of choral preludes on Christmas hymns. When planning the series for this year it turned out that I’ve used most of the source material already. So this year it will be rather a short series of perhaps a dozen choral preludes. And unless I find new material, it is going to be my last series.

Walther wrote three chorale preludes on the melody of “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland”, each belonging to a different verse of the choral. In publishing them, I somehow reverted the order of the three, starting with verse 3, last year verse 2, and now verse 1. It is a plain three part prelude with the choral melody in the soprano voice. The music flows easy, smooth and almost predictably. Walther has a very natural way of writing choral preludes. Playing his music always makes me feel like writing music like this is easy. Until I try to write it myself, of course. Than it is immediately clear it is not ewasy at all, and that Walther was extremely gifted to be able to write music that sounds so easy and natural.

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

Score
Walther, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, vers 1

Performance

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