Partita on Ach wie nichtig

Georg Böhm (1661-1733) was born in Hohenkirchen, Thuringia, the familial seat of the Bachs. He received his first music lessons from his father, though other instruction may have come from musicians active in the Bach circle. Little details survive about his later musical training and education (we know he studied at the university in Jena), but in 1693 he resurfaces in Hamburg. Apart from the presence of Reincken, Hamburg also enjoyed one of the more remarkable operatic cultures in northern Germany. In 1698 Böhm became organist of the principal church of Lüneburg. In the next few years, Böhm likely met and tutored a young J. S. Bach, who arrived in 1700 to study at St. Michael’s School in Lüneburg. He is noted today for his inventive use of the “fantasia” style (akin to improvisation within otherwise strict forms) as well as essentially inventing the chorale partita.
Böhm’s Partita on “Ach wie nichtig” operates like a theme and variations on an older chorale tune, originally penned by Johann Crüger in 1652. Böhm retains the key and harmonic progression of the model, as well as some aspects of melodic shape. Granted, the tune becomes harder to find as the level of activity accelerates (vars. 3 and 4). Indeed, Böhm seems intent on transcending his model in order to sample a variety of creative techniques, from skipping pointillism (no. 5), shifting to triple meter (no. 6), and imitation and echo effects (no. 7). The last variation (no. 8) returns to triple meter and rounds off the whole work with a processional tone. As further comparison, one might enjoy comparing these variations with Bach’s treatment of the same melody in Cantata 26.

(c) Jason Stell