J.S. Bach: Das Orgelbüchlein

UBC Music alum Angelique Po (BMus ’14) featured in rare performance of the organ in Barnett Hall.

J.S. Bach’s monumental Orgelbüchlein (BWV 599−644) is a collection of 46 Lutheran chorale preludes for organ, spanning the entire traditional liturgical year. As Bach composed these various chorale preludes mainly throughout his Weimar appointment from 1708-1717, the Orgelbüchlein is a showcase of his development as a composer through this early period of his career, as well as the development of the chorale prelude form as a whole. Several of the pieces within the Orgelbüchlein have stood as being among the most popular pieces in the organ literature, with many receiving transcriptions for other instruments (famously, Ferruccio Busoni’s transcriptions for solo piano, and Leopold Stokowski’s transcriptions for orchestra.) This concert aims to present a selection of pieces from the Orgelbüchlein (the entire set is approximately 1 hr 20 mins in duration) in their original form, for solo organ. The UBC School of Music happens to be especially ideal for this concert, because of the neo-baroque Casavant Frères tracker organ in Roy Barnett Recital Hall.