Wer nur den lieben Gott (BWV Anh. II 68)

Manuscript Mus ms P285, Rara lb 36 contains two compositions that were presumably not written by Johann Sebastian Bach. Hence their inclusion in the second supplement of the catalogue of Bach's compositions that contains the compositions where Bach's authorship is doubtfull. The first of these two compositions from Mus ms P285, Rara lb 36 is the prelude to the choral "Helft mir Gottes Güte preisen", that I already published a while ago. The second one is the prelude published here, based on the melody of "Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten".

The curious thing about these two compositions is that they share the same introduction and ending. The choral melodies are not the same, but they do share the first few notes. The introduction is based on the first four notes of both choral melodies, making that introduction suitable for both these two melodies. And since the ending of the composition is based on the introduction, that can be re-used as well. The part in between introduction and ending is quite different though, as the choral melodies are quite different too. But it is an efficient way of composing to just re-use suitable material.

This piece is actually quite tricky to play. The manuscript says it is written for two manuals and pedals, presumably meaning the choral melody is to be played with adifferent registration as the accompaniment. In some places however, the accompaniment needs two hands, even while the choral melody is still sounding. That means I have two play with one hand across two manuals, not an easy thing to do. Another difficult spot is bars 18 and 19, where the pedals play a very awkward passage in sixteenth notes, that does not really fit in the rest of the piece. This is a second reason why I think BWV Anh. II 54 is the original composition and BWV Anh. II 68 is the derived composition by a somewhat less able composer.

Score available here: http://partitura.org/index.php/johann-sebastian-bach-wer-nur-den-lieben-gott-lasst-walten-bwv-a