Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr

Sietze de Vries is a Dutch organist and known for his ingenious improvisations. Joachim Scheufele-Leidig transcribed some of his improvisations and made those nice editions available. This chorale prelude on the famous hymn 'Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr', is one of them. Originally it's part of a partita Sietze improvised.

Although this chorale isn't an obvious choice for Ascension Day, it's interesting that Bach used it in his Ascension Cantata 'Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein', BWV 128. The cheering opening chorus of this cantata is a large chorale fantasy on the first verse of the chorale Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein, which Ernst Sonnemann wrote in 1661 on the much older melody that Nikolaus Decius composed in 1524 for Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr, the Gloria of Luther's 'Deutsche Messe'. So that's a nice link because of the shared tune of this Ascension chorale and 'Allein Gott'.

Played on the set of the Martinikerk, Groningen. Sietze de Vries is one of the organists of this Schnitger organ. Using the 'forbidden' combination of a principal 8' and a flute 4', but I simply love how that sounds.