Analysis Of Bach 's Orgel Buchlein

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J.S. Bach was born into a stylistic period called the ‘Baroque’ period. This period

was one of decorative, lavish extravagance in relation to art, architecture and

music. Similar to architecture at this time, Bach’s music was extremely ornate

with heavy embellishments and was somewhat characterised by its ornamentation

yet still had a strict organisation of insistent rhythms. “Thus, music of the

Baroque period is somewhat paradoxical in that, while it is extravagantly ornate

and emotionally expressive, it still manages to be rigorously controlled and

systematic.” This may be seen particularly in Bach’s Orgel-Buchlein, more

commonly known as “The Little Organ Book,” which contains 46 chorale

preludes for organ which has been argued to be “a key to understanding his

music as a whole.” Each of these chorales within the ‘Orgel-Buchlein’ takes an

original Lutheran chorale and develops it by adding a motivic development.

Further, throughout Bach’s Orgel-Buchlein, he explores diverse range of

expressive techniques, techniques that had not yet been discovered by any of his

contempories as he combines a rhetorical and expressive musical language with

refined counterpoint. Bach had been determined to combine strict polyphony

with free composition whilst also using contrapuntal elements to articulate the

emotion behind the words being sung. This development marked the beginning

of Bach’s individuality, personifying every note of each
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