Musical contribution - August 2018

Nun danket alle Gott (“Now thank ye all our God”) - J.S. Bach (LiVE sample set: Groningen, Schnitger).

It’s the 50th anniversary of Johannus Orgelbouw, and we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate management and staff on this joyous occasion. 50 years a leader, and with every reason for gratitude! Hence, we’re presenting a festive arrangement of a well-known song in which gratitude prevails, and who better to do that with, than the grand master himself?

This is the third movement from Cantata 79. The notation of the melody, and the harmonisation accompanying it, are unusually simple for Bach. The ornamentation, however (for two horns) is far from simple.

We have recorded this arrangement twice. The first is with a leading (solo) stop, and an accompaniment with 8’, 4’ and 2’. A trumpet was chosen for the Cantus Firmus. However, we’re now missing the harmonisation in the chorale, and that’s why we’ve also added a second version. This brings us a little closer to the original. We play the accompaniment with a reed and provide the chorale with chords. This treatment doesn’t make it any simpler!

We hope that you’ll get a great deal of joy out of this, and we also wish everyone at Johannus the same joy, in developing, building and giving voice to their beautiful instruments.

With musical regards,

André van Vliet