The Sound of Struggle — Bruhns Praeludium in E Minor | Meantone Organ скачать в хорошем качестве

The Sound of Struggle — Bruhns Praeludium in E Minor | Meantone Organ

This recording continues a musical journey through grief and transcendence across centuries of organ music. After the inward contemplation of Girolamo Frescobaldi, Nicolaus Bruhns’ monumental Praeludium in E minor represents the moment when reflection erupts into confrontation and struggle. At the heart of the work lies one of the oldest musical symbols of grief: the descending chromatic tetrachord — a lament figure used by composers for centuries to portray suffering, sorrow, and emotional conflict. Nicolaus Bruhns (1665–1697) — Praeludium in E minor (Great) Prologue: Frescobaldi — Toccata cromatica per l’Elevatione (from Fiori musicali) Struggle: Bruhns — Praeludium in E minor This recording forms the second stage of a musical exploration of grief, struggle, suffering, contemplation of mortality, and ultimately hope across centuries of organ literature. In the previous piece, Girolamo Frescobaldi’s Toccata cromatica per l’Elevatione, grief appeared as inward contemplation: quiet, suspended, and prayerful. Bruhns’ monumental Praeludium in E minor represents the moment when that inward reflection erupts into confrontation and struggle. The work stands firmly within the great North German Stylus Phantasticus tradition, alternating freely between toccata writing, fugue, virtuoso passagework, and dramatic contrasts of texture and character. Beneath the virtuosity lies a powerful expressive language rooted in the Baroque doctrine of musical affect. In this performance I hear the emotional arc of the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. At the heart of the piece lies a musical symbol long associated with lament: the descending chromatic tetrachord. This gesture, heard earlier in the Frescobaldi work, becomes the structural DNA of Bruhns’ composition. The opening fugue subject itself unfolds as a slow chromatic descent spanning a fourth, echoing the ancient lament formula. The falling half-step gesture appears everywhere throughout the piece—compressed, expanded, hidden in inner voices, or stretched across entire phrases. Often it is answered by sudden upward leaps, as if the music repeatedly gathers strength only to fall again. The result is a musical tug-of-war between descent and resistance. Bruhns’ background as a virtuoso violinist also leaves a clear mark on the work. In the famous Harpeggio section, violinistic bowing patterns are transformed into sweeping keyboard figurations that seem to surge forward in restless motion. For a moment it feels as if the struggle might lift away—until the pedal enters and pulls the music back to the ground. Later passages intensify the tension through long suspensions, chromatic pedal writing, and harmonies that dissolve into silence, leaving the listener suspended in uncertainty. For this performance I chose the historical sound world of the organ of St. Marienkirche, built by Friedrich Stellwagen in the 17th century, heard here in its original meantone temperament. This tuning system dramatically heightens the expressive impact of Bruhns’ harmonic language. Intervals such as the leading tone D♯ resolving to E create striking tension before finally releasing into consonance. What sounds smooth in modern equal temperament becomes vivid and biting here, allowing the music’s rhetorical dissonances to speak with visceral clarity. The harshness some listeners may hear is not a flaw—it is part of the expressive world Bruhns expected. My interpretation also embraces the resonance of the space. Broader tempos allow the acoustic to interact with the music, while contrasting registrations highlight the dramatic architecture of the piece: full principal choruses for the declamatory passages, a single singing principal for the lamenting fugue (this connects back to the Frescobaldi piece uploaded earlier as well, on purpose), brighter textures for the violin-inspired Harpeggio, and darker gravitas for the chromatic pedal writing that precedes the final fugue. Despite its dance-like meter, the concluding “gigue” fugue never truly becomes light. Its insistent rhythms and powerful pedal entries maintain a granite-like weight until the final coda, where the long struggle in E minor resolves in a decisive affirmation of the tonic. Within the broader arc of this program, Bruhns’ Praeludium represents the moment when grief becomes struggle: a powerful musical depiction of humanity wrestling with suffering.