Bradley Burgess | pianist & organist

The Orgelbüchlein Project

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In December of 2022, as we were emerging from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to embark on the adventure of learning and performing the complete Orgelbüchlein (“Little Organ Book”) of Johann Sebastian Bach over the course of 2023. This project continued into 2024, and — after a successfull Indiegogo campain — culminated in recording the complete collection for RavenCD.

Liner Notes

by Bradley Burgess

About the Orgelbüchlein

The Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) is a collection of 46 chorale preludes,1 long regarded as a pillar of organ literature. While the title page seems to indicate a decidedly pedagogical motivation for the collection, there is plausible evidence that the title page was written after most of the music was composed.2 It is very likely that Bach—­ever the pragmatist—composed the collection to fulfill both a didactic and a practical need: a Lutheran church musician, he probably used these pieces in his own service playing, as hymn introductions, interludes, or even accompaniments.3 Bach put only 46 pieces to paper, however we know that he had originally intended to set a total of 164 hymns: most of the manuscript consists of pages with chorale titles at the top, but that otherwise are blank. The hymns chosen fall into two broad categories: (1) de tempore (“of the time”), hymns belonging to a particular season of the church year (Advent through Pentecost), and (2) omne tempore (“all times”), more general hymns.

The Orgelbüchlein is sometimes overshadowed by Bach’s two bigger chorale collections: the Great Eighteen or Leipzig Chorales, and Clavier-Übung III. This is a pity, for within the pages of the Orgel­büchlein live forty-five4 unique and fully formed, rich musical worlds. The level of musical conciseness Bach achieves is extraordinary: a complete musico-theological statement is made often within the span of ten to fifteen measures — sometimes fewer than ten (e.g. BWV 602). It is easy to imagine that Schubert might have drawn inspiration from The Orgelbüchlein while penning some of his Lieder, which are similarly brief and also employ vivid text painting at times. Alan Walker, the great biographer of Liszt, noted that, “If [Liszt] had composed nothing else, he would have to be regarded as a major composer on the strength of [the Piano Sonata] alone.”5 It is my belief that the same could be said of Bach and the Orgelbüchlein.

A handful of the chorales in the present collection have enjoyed great popularity and are played often — rightly so. These include In dir ist Freude, In dulci jubilo, Ich ruf zu dir and O Mensch bewein. However, these pieces do not represent musically exemplary outliers in an otherwise mediocre collection; each of the 46 are masterpieces, with Bach’s compositional prowess on full display to those who take the time to notice. He is sometimes kind enough to inform the performer when he is crafting a canon by indicating so in the title, but it is not always apparent to the casual listener what contrapuntal sorcery Bach is able to perform; the intellectual achievements are never won at the expense of the music. Simply stated, these 46 pieces are nothing short of genius.

About the Recording

In recording the complete collection, three decisions were made in relation to the score:

  1. I did not record the less-than-two-measure frag­ment of O Traurigkeit.
  2. While the Neue Bach-Ausgabe includes a repeat at the end of Puer natus in Bethlehem, I chose to omit the repeat. Because of the cramped nature of the surviving manuscript, it is not clear how Bach intended this chorale to end, and no other work in the collection includes a wholesale repeat of the entire chorale.
  3. Instead of choosing a single version of Liebster Jesu (BWV 633 & 634), a path taken by many who have recorded the complete collection, I opted to create a hybrid version, using BWV 633 for the first statement of each line of the tune, and BWV 634 as a varied repeat. This is made clear in the two contrasting registrations used. The decision was motivated by a desire to hear both (albeit very similar) versions of the chorale, while not including two separate tracks of essentially the same piece.

I played my first Orgelbüchlein chorale in 2012, and over the next decade I learned a handful of others. As someone who came to serious study of the organ later than most—after having already completed graduate work in piano performance—I didn’t have the opportunity to study a lot of these pieces during my formative years. Additionally, many of the chorale tunes upon which these pieces are based are seldom, if ever, sung in present-day English-speaking churches; there is therefore less immediately obvious practical use for some of these pieces.

Like everything else, church music was completely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It took its toll on all of us. As we began to emerge from the pandemic, many had lost a measure of the motivation and inspiration they once felt. In late December of 2022, I decided to take on a project to reignite my creativity and provide a framework for learning some new music. My thoughts returned to the Orgelbüchlein: it was the perfect candidate for a big but manageable project. I loosely resolved to learn the complete set over the course of the next year, and use many of the pieces as voluntaries in my work as a church organist.

I didn’t manage to complete the project in 2023 as planned, but the Orgelbüchlein bug had bitten, and I knew I had to see the project through to completion. I hadn’t expected to become quite so taken with these “little” pieces, but the more time I spent with them, the more my appreciation and admiration for the music grew. I had favorites at first, but by the end I came to love each of them — and, as it turns out, some of the chorales I put off learning initially have become favorites themselves. In truth, my favorite is whichever one I’m currently playing. This recording represents the culmination of a journey begun more than a decade ago when I first learned Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland as an Advent voluntary, a journey that has occupied a good deal of my energy over the course of the past two years.

About The Organ

Fritts Op. 43 of 43 ranks was installed at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Terrace Park, Ohio, in the early fall of 2023, replacing the 28-rank Wicks Op. 4573 of 1969. Paul Fritts & Co. was chosen by the organ committee to construct the new instrument, owing to the committee’s recognition of the meticulous detail and supreme excellence of Fritts’ work, as well as the desire to secure an instrument that would last for generations.

The case design is modeled after 17th-century North German organs — especially instruments built by Arp Schnitger (1648–1719), widely considered a very influential organ builder of his day and still. The design closely follows the proportions of the “Wide Hamburg” style, which is mostly associated with Schnitger. The case is constructed with fumed white oak and finished with oil to further enhance the color and protect the wood. The pipes of the Pedal division flank the organ, with the Great division directly above the impost and the enclosed Swell division above the Great.

The interior of the organ is designed to maximize access for tuning and maintenance. The wind is provided by an electric blower that feeds two wedge bellows, supplying constant, regulated wind pressure to the organ. The blower and bellows are housed in the basement of the chancel, directly beneath the organ.

With the exception of the Pedal Subbaß and Bourdon and a few notes of the Swell Gedackt, which are made of wood, the pipes are made of metal, cast on a bed of sand. Casting on sand allows the metal to cool about fifteen times faster than other casting methods, which results in a finer, more stable crystalline structure that has great tonal benefits. The pipes are made of an alloy appropriate for the desired tonal quality of each voice: the façade principals and the reeds are made of a tin-rich alloy, while the flutes are lead-rich.

The organ employs suspended key action, offering a sensitive and direct connection to the instrument. Some mechanical action organ builders, including Fritts, have embraced the use of carbon fiber over wood for the construction of trackers, as this material is not susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity. While many organ builders utilize electric stop action for their instruments, Fritts opts for a mechanical stop action, with the combination action being made possible by placing magnetic solenoids in the action run. The organ is equip­ped with one thousand memory levels, 14 general pistons, seven manual divisional pistons and two pedal divisional pistons—and with toe studs for coupler reversibles and sequencer stepping. Incorporating the solenoids in the action run allows the organ to be playable even with a failure in the electrical components. Only the blower, the combination action, and the interior lighting (for maintenance) are electrically powered.

Construction of this magnificent instrument required approximately 18,000 man hours from the nine expert craftsmen at the Paul Fritts & Co. workshop.

The organ’s inauguration and blessing on November 19, 2023 included an Evensong sung by the St. Thomas Parish Choir with a recital following the service performed by Dr. Jason M. Gunnell, Associate Director of Music & Organist.

A complete stoplist can be found on the Fritts website.

Footnotes

  1. organ works based on Lutheran hymn tunes ↩

  2. Russell Stinson, Bach: The Orgelbüchlein (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 31. ↩

  3. Stinson, 27. See tinyurl.com/ob-lecture for a demonstration of the chorales as accompaniments. ↩

  4. While there are indeed 46 pieces in the collection, Bach included two very similar settings of Liebster Jesu; these are essentially two versions of the same piece. ↩

  5. Alan Walker, Reflections on Liszt (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005), 129. ↩