Komm heiliger Geist, Herre Gott, LV 8

Manuscript Mus ms 40037, owned by the Staatsbibliothek Berlin, contains over 40 choral preludes composed by Zachow or his pupil Kirchhof. They cover most of the liturgical year, with choral preludes ranging from the Advent periode to Pentecost. “Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott” is a Lutheran hymn for Pentecost, with words written by Martin Luther, The melody is from an anonymous composer and similar to the tune of the hymn “Adesto, sancte spiritus” by Marchetto di Padua (c. 1270). Many composers wrote music based on the melody “Komm heiliger Geist, Herre Gott”, including Bach, Buxtehude and, obviously, Zachow.

Zachow wrote a little fughetta based on the first phrase of the chorale melody. It appears 10 or 11 times (depending on whether you include the first alto notes) in only 29 bars of rather dense counterpoint writing. Zachow clearly knew his counterpoint.

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the demo sampleset, made by Sonus Paradisi, of the Schnittger organ in the St Martinikerk, Groningen