2 Præludia

The Lynar manuscript Ms Lynar B3 contains 38 compositions, 11 of which can be assigned to specific composers: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Heinrich Scheidemann, David Abel, Andreas and Martin Düben, Petrus Hasse, and Simon Lohet. The other compositions remain anonymous. The preludia in this manuscript fall largely in the latter category. For the most part they seem student's works. They are not longer than two pages and sometimes even much shorter than that. Because of the limited length there is no real musical development and the musical form is simple. Perhaps they were compositional excercises, or they were meant to serve as a basis for improvisation. We can only guess at the original purpose of the manuscript.
The music of the preludia, though short, is not without merit. If they were student's works, the student certainly had talent. They can still be used in today's church services or even in concerts, as short itermezzi. Today I group two of them together, both in perfoarmance and in the score. The second one is too short even for one whole page, so it seemed best to me two combine it with the one preceding it in the manuscript.

Score available here: http://partitura.org/index.php/anonymus-2-praeludia-ms-lynar-b3-page-32-34