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Bach, J.S. Cantatas & Oratorios &c.
For references to J.S.Bach in the notes on hymns and tunes, see the following pages.
For each work or group of works, the chorales now used as hymns are identified (words or tunes or both); only those included (in some form) in Rejoice & Sing are referenced here at present.
For an alphabetical list of Tune Names of all the melodies in Rejoice & Sing which occur in the Bach sources above, together with cross-references to these sources, click here . . .
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For a list of Bach's Cantatas containing chorales now used as hymns (words or tunes), see separate pages (click here . . . ).
[Only those included (in some form) in Rejoice & Sing are referenced here at present.]
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In 1764 a Berlin music publisher, Friedrich Wilhelm Birnstiel, commissioned an edition of J.S.Bach's Chorales, to be edited by Bach's son Carl Philipp Emmanuel and others. It was published in 1765, and contained 100 hymn tunes, harmonised in four parts. A second volume, containing a further 100 tunes, was issued in 1769; but C.P.E.Bach may not have been involved in its preparation.
A more complete collection was subsequently edited by C.P.E.Bach and J.P.Kirnberger (NOTE 1) for the publisher Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf. This was in four Parts (i.e. Sections), Part 1 appearing in 1784 and the other three Parts at yearly intervals, 1785-87; altogether it contained 370 harmonizations, to which one more was added in a third edition of 1831. (But see the further remarks about the Chorales, below.)
The resulting collection is still (1999) available, (re)published in1990 by Breitkopf and Härtel, Wiesbaden, as 371 vierstimmige Choräle, für ein Tasteninstrument (Orgel, Klavier, Cembalo), edited by Klaus Schubert and "based on the edition of 1784-1787 (C.P.E.Bach and J.P.Kirnberger)".
In many cases there are several different harmonizations for a particular melody; these are scattered, apparently randomly, throughout the collection, not grouped under their chorale title.
The Contents page (1990 edn) lists 228 separate hymns by their First Lines; but this still does not correspond to the number of different tunes. Some tunes are set to more than one hymn (e.g. the tune known in the UK as Passion Chorale appears under "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" and "Befiehl du deine Wege"); while some words have more than one tune ("Befiehl du deine Wege", again; and "O Gott, du frommer Gott").
(Actually neither of the two "371" tunes associated with "O Gott, du frommer Gott" is the same as the one for which Bach wrote the Organ variations [Novello Book 19 pp.44 ff.] )
In German hymn-books generally, there is, of course, as much variety in the association of words and tunes as may be expected in UK hymn-books.
For a list of Chorales corresponding to hymn-tunes in current use, see separate pages (click here . . . ). These pages include references to the Bach works which make use of the same or related melodies. Of the list there given, all the tunes occur (in some form) in the "371" except the one known in hymn-books as Breslau, which we have not been able to link with any in the above-mentioned collection.
.NOTE Kirnberger
Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1721-83) was a violinist and composer, and a prolific writer on music theory. He was a pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach.
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[ References are to the Novello edition, books 15-19 ]
See separate lists of Chorale Preludes whose chorales correspond to hymn-tunes in current use (at present only those included in Rejoice & Sing).
[ The translated Title Pages are transcribed from Ernest Newman's Introduction to the Chorale Preludes, printed in each of the Novello volumes. ]
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(The Rejoice & Sing Enchiridion:edited by David Goodall; last amended 11/3/03)