Part ii

, 1 and 2).]

The influence of the style of G. Böhm, which betrays itself from one end to the other of these compositions, and their resemblance to clavecin pieces, would seem to indicate that they belong to the Lüneburg period, when Bach had but rarely, at best, an organ at his disposal. Here we find heavy, solid chords, undoubtedly intended to augment the tone of the weak instrument, as the profuse ornaments were to prolong it. They are written without pedal, or, at most, in one variation, for the pedal of a clavecin; for the pedal part of this last variation of _Christ, der Du bist der helle Tag_ cannot be played upon the organ as it is written; the whole design of the sixteenth-notes in the left hand would be covered up. On the contrary, entrusted to the basses of the clavecin, which do not prolong the tone, they merely serve to accentuate the rhythm.

The chorale _Christ lag in Todesbanden_[126] is analogous in character, and doubtless belongs to the same period.[127]

[Footnote 126: P. vi, 15.]

[Footnote 127: This also must have been written for the clavecin; the right hand passing over the left in order to strike the bass note _e_, held meanwhile by the pedal, clearly indicates the intention of thereby prolonging the sound.]

Among the chorales of the earlier years should be included a prelude in _G_ major upon _Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern_.[128] This work dates, perhaps, from Arnstadt; three other chorales, published by Commer,[129] and similar to those of Christopher Bach, are of still earlier origin.

[Footnote 128: Published by Ritter: _Geschichte des Orgelspiels_,

##