Sonic Groove Live, Week 11 - Carl F. Scheidemantel, Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her

This is my entry for the eleventh week on the Sonic Groove Live Contest. I play a choral prelude to the Christmas hymn "Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her" ("I come from the Heavens above").

In the video I explain a bit of why it is called a chorale prelude and even go as far as to sing the first phrase of the choral melody. I thought it a nice thing to do this morning when I recorded the video. Now that I watch the video, I fear it is perhaps a bit pedantic. Well, let me know: was it helpfull in understanding a bit about the music?

The author of this piece is uncertain. The source for this composition is one of the compilations made by Johann Gottfried Walther, early in the eighteenth century. Walther indicates only initials in his manuscript: F.C.S.M. Itn musicological literature it is ascribed to one Carl F. Scheidemantel. And that is, as far as I could find, only a name. No year or place of birth of death, no information about where he worked, lived, married or not, nothing.

Yet this prelude is a brilliant piece of trio writing. It’s everything one could wish for in such a piece. It has drive, clever ornamentation of the choral melody, perhaps simple but very effective counterpoint, and overal harmonic layout that follows the structure of the choral melody brilliantly. Whoever the author was, he deserves a statue for this piece alone.

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Voxus, of the Müller organ in the Sint Bavokerk, Haarlem (http://www.voxusorgans.com/en/product/haarlem).

Score: http://partitura.org/index.php/carl-f-scheidemantel-vom-himmel-hoch-da-komm-ich/

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