LDV302

The general construction is based on the principle of alternation of highly accomplished instrumental pieces with their homophonic four-part vocal counterparts, as they appear in certain cantatas or, for example, ‘in the great collection of Joh. Seb. Bachs vierstimmige Choralgesänge brought together by Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach and Kirnberger’ 4 between 1784 and 1787. Beyond that principle, several pages blend the organ and the voices directly, in an original stand for interpretation, relying on a statement of gemellity between the harmonised versions, intended for vocal performance, and those calling for the instrument. This is true of the chorale Herr Gott, dich loben wir – the German version of the Latin Te Deum – the length and style of which lead us to suppose that it was intended as an accompaniment of, rather than as a prelude to, the singing of the congregation. An early work, for five voices, first published by Griepenkerl, after a copy made by Forkel, which mentioned the incipit of each verse, this score provides a copy of the harmonised version, treated in the same key, and taken down by the composer and theorist Kirnberger, who studied with Bach for a short time. 30 BACH_TE DEUM / DE PROFUNDIS 4. G. Cantagrel, Le moulin et la rivière , Paris, 1998, p. 217