[PW] Bach piano transcription

[Nina Gilbert]

To answer David Anderson and Fadia Doty (note: this was not my question originally, I'm just trying to help):

Assuming Barb's patron wants the Neumeister organ chorale, BWV 1117, anything published before 1985 won't be the right piece.  I believe the Schirmer vol. 1724 was published in 1949, and I think it's the BWV 643 I mention below (not sure -- I'm guessing from online citations).  It is possible that your patron has seen this four-hand version and is now looking for a two-hand version.  But BWV 1117 is a more likely guess.

And here are three terms that might help:

chorale = hymn
organ chorale = organ piece based on the chorale, often with fancy running bits
chorale prelude = virtually interchangeable with "organ chorale," the idea being that an organist would improvise a piece based on the hymn before the congregation sang the hymn

You can find the "371 chorales" online -- but that's just the hymn-style version of the tune.

Another clue:  you can find recordings of both pieces online -- if your patron doesn't know the BWV number, your patron may be able to recognize via a sound clip.

Hope this helps!

Nina Gilbert
Education and Community Program Manager, Boston Lyric Opera

 
------------------------------------------------
Nina Gilbert
ninagilbert at yahoo.com



----- Original Message ----
From: Nina Gilbert <ninagilbert at yahoo.com>
To: list at project-wombat.org
Sent: Monday, December 3, 2007 6:14:09 PM
Subject: Re: [PW] Bach piano transcription




With a Bach work and a title, you'll want to get the BWV number -- Bach
 has several settings of that text.  I'm guessing your patron wants the
 Neumeister organ chorale, BWV 1117.  That's one of the set that was
 discovered by Harvard musicologist Christoph Wolff languishing in the
 Yale University library (that is, the music was languishing, not the
 musicologist -- Yale didn't know that they had a lost Bach manuscript in
 their library until the Harvard professor found it there).  But there's
 another organ chorale on the same tune, BWV 643.

Here are two links to BWV 1117:

You can buy a transcription online here for $4.95:

http://www.freehandmusic.com/ProductDetail.aspx?PRODID=330692



And you can hear a MIDI rendition of it here:

http://www.virtuallybaroque.com/track718.htm

I think that BWV 1117 is for manuals only -- that is, it doesn't
 require pedals, and thus could be easily played on a piano.  ("Manual" =
 "manual keyboard" as opposed to "pedal keyboard.")

Hope this helps!

Nina Gilbert
Education and Community Programs Manager, Boston Lyric Opera
Former music professor


------------------------------------------------
Nina Gilbert
ninagilbert at yahoo.com

----- Original Message ----
From: Barbara Bussart <barbarbt at gmail.com>
To: list at project-wombat.org
Sent: Monday, December 3, 2007 3:17:25 PM
Subject: Re: [PW] Bach piano transcription


Hi, all -

   I have a patron looking for a piano transcription of Bach's "Alle
menschen
   mussen sterben".  I tried getting the only 2-hand arr. that I could
 find
in
   WorldCat by ILL, and it was bounced as no suppliers.  The other arr.
 that
I
   found were either organ or 4-hand piano.  There is a title in
 WorldCat
   called Twenty-four choral preludes, but it does not have a table of
   contents, so I don't know if this piece is included.

   Does anyone have this in a collection for piano that they could
 either
fax
   or snail-mail to me?

   Thanks!

   Barb Bussart
-- 
Barbara J. Bussart
Chief Information and Adult Services Librarian
Woonsocket Harris Public Library
303 Clinton St.
Woonsocket, RI 02895
401-767-4124 (voice)
401-767-4120 (fax)
http://www.woonsocketlibrary.org
barbarbt at gmail.com
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