Durch Adams Fall, BuxWV 183

Buxtehude also wrote many chorale preludes, and tonight we will hear two. The first, a passion chorale “Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder” BuxWV 178, uses chromatic inflections to allude to the sins of mankind. The initial entries of the four voices are set as fugal imitation, while the touches of Phrygian mode dictate the cadential destinations: in addition to the A minor tonic note, Buxtehude lands in C, G and d. Mode also shapes the approach to the final cadence: after seeming to cadence firmly in C, Buxtehude steps quickly to an E major final triad. What would be heard as an unresolved dominant of A would most likely not have had such a connotation for Buxtehude or his hearers, and we should try, I feel, to resist interpreting the final cadence as open-ended.
The chorale “Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt” BuxWV 183 similarly uses dissonant, chromatic melodic action to symbolize man’s fall from grace. The chromaticism also colors the overall A minor by making possible rapid glances at related key centers. Falling intervals are prominent, as one might expect given the chorale tune/title. As the chorale appears in the uppermost voice, it grows increasingly florid, and the final ascending motion and raised chordal third clearly project a light of hope in the resurrection at the prelude’s final bars.

(c) Jason Stell