Showcase-Sunday | Johann Ludwig Krebs, Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, KrebsWV 530

#showcase-sunday is an initiative started by @nonameslefttouse where we gather some long buried content to showcase (hopefully) to new sets of eyes. My Steem journey is only one and a half year old. The first year or so I happily posted my stuff for only a few readers. So, I like the change to post some of it again, my own personal favorites.

In september I published the score of this composition by Johann Ludwig Krebs. It took me two posts to arrive at my final publication.

The original posts are here: https://steemit.com/classical-music/@partitura/anonymus-ich-ruf-zu-dir-herr-jesu-christ
and here: https://steemit.com/classical-music/@partitura/johann-ludwig-krebs-ich-ruf-zu-dir-herr-jesu-christ-krebswv-530

A recording of the music is at the end of this post.

At the time I was working on an edition containing all choral preludes not-by-J.S.-Bach from the Neumeister-manuscript. An for references I searched on IMSLP an anonymous choral prelude to "Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ". I did not find the one contained in Neumeister's manuscript, but I did find an intruiging piece of organ music (https://imslp.org/wiki/Ich_ruf_zu_dir,Herr_Jesu_Christ(Anonymous)). The transcription dates back to 2005 and was part of the Mutopia project. No source for the transcription is given.

The score on IMSLP and Mutopia has one staff for the accompaniment and one staff for the chorale melody. I think the music better readable when each hand gets its own staff. Manual changes are easily indicated with roman numerals. So I made my own version of this score and I published it for download on my website.

In reaction to that publication Martin Moree pointed out to me that both the libraries of Leipzig and of Berlin own a manuscript, containing this composition. The manuscript in Leipzig attributes it to Johann Sebastian Bach, the manuscript in Berlin to Johann Ludwig Krebs. The latter attribution seems the more likely one. The manuscript in Leipzig has the last bars missing, the manuscript in Berlin has a complete piece. In both manuscripts the piece is in e minor, instead of f minor as in the transcription available on IMSLP (and Mutopia). There are quite a lot of other differences as well, not in the least a different ending to the piece.

Since there is a verifiable ource for the e minor version and not one for the f minor version, I withdrew the f minor version, and published the e minor one in its place. After having ppractised and performed the f minor version, it took me some trouble to play the e minor version. Even with the score with the right notes before my eyes, my hands kept returning to the previously practised notes. Muscle memory is not to be underestimated!

A intruiging fact of this composition is that the accompaniment in the second half of the piece is based on the first phrase of the melody to the chorale "Aus tiefer Noth, ruf ich zu dir".

The recording of the e minor version was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sample set of the Silbermann organ of the Stadtkirche Zöblitz by Prospectum (http://www.prospectum.com/index.php?language=english&id1=2&id2=8).

The recording of the f minor was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sample set, made by Voxus, of the Van Dam organ (1832) in Tholen (http://www.voxusorgans.com/en/tholen).

Score available here: http://partitura.org/index.php/johann-ludwig-krebs-ich-ruf-zu-dir-herr-jesu-christ-krebswv-530