User:WillisBodine/sandbox

BWV 680 is a thoroughly Lutheran statement of faith in organo pleno, a three-voice German fugue for the manuals based on the first few notes of Martin Luther's creedal hymn, supported by interjections of an independent pedal ostinato phrase. SPITTA QUOTE HERE Bach’s fugue subject in the tenor voice is formed from the opening melisma on (Wir …) of an early 15th-century melody in the Dorian mode on D (see cut of 1524 adaptation). Ending notes of that phrase (… all an einen Gott) then form the fugal countersubject. The second subject entry in the alto voice (bar 2) follows a strict rule for fugal tonal answers, but coincidentally bears a striking resemblance to the second phrase of Luther’s tune, so that Bach’s subject derivation from the melody as contained in the Deutsche Messe would have been immediately apparent to his listeners. Features of the remainder of this early melody also suffuse the later writing, in particular the scale-like passages and the melodic leaps. Exceptionally among all the chorale preludes, there is no cantus firmus, perhaps because of the unusually lengthy text and chorale tune. The vigorous pedal ostinato (bars 4, 15, 27, 40, and 60) is constructed over rising and falling minor scales with alternating-feet figures in 17th-century style: its quasi-ostinato character has been consistently interpreted as representing a "firm faith in God." Such a striding stepwise bass line was often used by Bach for Credo movements, for example in the Credo and Confiteor of the Mass in B Minor. During each occurrence of the pedal ostinato the music modulates into a different tonality, the three upper parts written in invertible counterpoint so these lines can later be interchanged freely between the voices to give coherence to the whole movement. In a lengthy manualiter episode (bar 76) the head of the pedal motive is taken up sequentially by the left hand, again modulating through related keys. Although Bach's G-sharp modification may make its derivation from the 15th-century tune more difficult to recognize, the final subject entry (bar 89), contains Luther's entire first phrase including (glauben), boldly singing out in the tenor voice over an extended statement of the pedal ostinato (bar 91). ______ Add references to score, to Walter, Boehm, etc. Check cues to wiki articles (fugal tonal answer, countersubject, etc.)