The chorale Christ lag in Todesbanden[126] is analogous in character, and doubtless belongs to the same period.[127]
Among the chorales of the earlier years should be included a prelude in G major upon Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.[128] This work dates, perhaps, from Arnstadt; three other chorales, published by Commer,[129] and similar to those of Christopher Bach, are of still earlier origin.
Aside from these chorales, which are separate, and a few others equally isolated, of which we shall speak in their proper place, the greater part of the Bach chorales have been brought together in various collections, although some have been published separately.
I
In chronological order, the first of these collections is the Orgelbüchlein.[130]
Because this collection was made at Cöthen, it must not be supposed that the chorales which it comprises were composed only during the period of Bach's service to Prince Leopold of Anhalt; Bach rather made a practical arrangement of them, whereby they might serve as a useful work for his pupils.
It comprises forty-five chorales, of which a goodly portion undoubtedly belong to the years in Weimar—perhaps to a still earlier period.
These chorales are generally written after the models furnished by Pachelbel; but where Pachelbel is merely calmly devout, or placidly harmonious, Bach, with a more exalted piety and distinctly more poetic, lends to them whatever of mystic character he could derive from the text of the hymns; in addition, he imbues them with all the picturesqueness suggested by the sense of the words.
And what variety in the choice of means to be employed! Sometimes there are progressions which fairly chill us, simply the result of a note purposely prolonged, or a succession of chords strikingly disjointed, which seem to clash with incompatible harmonies, as at the close of Alle Menschen müssen sterben; or a false relation seems fraught with fatality, as well as with complete desolation, as in O Mensch, bewein' dein' Sünde gross. At other times will be found motives whose symbolic character is not the result of chance; for example, all the irreparability of the primeval fall of man[131] is symbolized by diminished sevenths, pitching obliquely downwards, as if in a veritable vertigo; or the gliding of scales in opposite directions depicts the balancing of a flying object hovering in space—skimming over the earth, and already out of range, while, in the repetitions, the flapping of wings emphasizes the rhythm.