Wir Glauben all an einen Gott, Schöpfer (BWV 765)

When Ralph Looij [1] shared his exquisite upload I challenged myself to master a version of this chorale with a clearly separate Cantus Firmus.

[1] See https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/53537

Because some publications indicate the main choral voice with "C.F" for Cantus Firmus (and my own hunger for stand-out interpretations), I kept looking for examples. In her various recordings of Bach's organ works, I discovered Marie-Claire Alain to be one of the CF users:

Here is the result of my work to try and master the composition - on the Voxus sampleset of Nijkerk. I've used the beautiful Sesquialter of the Rugwerk but in all respects I have deliberately tried to enact restraint: after all, this is the Credo, and immediately derived as it is from the pre-reformation Catholic Mass (and probably based on the Articles of Confession of Nicea), it should excel in its pre-Baroquian 'straightness' and discipline.

If Wikipedia is correct, Bach wrote this composition as a 21-year old in 1706: he might have played it at his organ at Arnstadt, and also at the Weimar Schlosskirche. Already he affirms his life-long contention that organ pedals are not just a fill-in, but represent an equal voice in the world of counterpoint: right from the start of the composition, the pedal voice is complex, integral and essential.

Some sources still rank this chorale in the doubtful or spurious category, but in the Peters Edition, Herman Keller writes in 1940 (translated from German):

“This chorale arrangement is among other well-known Sebastian Bach items in the often mentioned posthumous collection of J.L. Krebs” (Roitsch), “the first half under Sebastian Bach's name in a copy by Pleller” (Seiffert). So there is no reason to doubt its authenticity, especially since the composition clearly shows Bachian traits.