Johann Schneider, Präludium und Fuge, G Dur

This is my entry for the Secrets Of Organ Playing Contest, Week 48. I play a Prelude by Johann Schneider.

Johann Schneider (1702 – 1788) was a German organist, violinist and composer. Around 1720 he became a keyboard pupil of J.S. Bach. Besides keyboard with Bach, he studied violin with Johann Gottlieb Graun. In 1729 Schneider became organist of the Nicolaikirche in Leipzig. He remained in this position for the rest of his career. Schneider enjoyed a reputation as a truly great organist. A contemporary wrote that his “preludes on the organ are of such good taste that in this field, except for Mr. Bach, whose pupil he has been, there is nothing better to be heard in Leipzig”.

Only a small number of his organ works survive. Most of them are contained in manuscript Mus. Ms. 30377, owned by the Staatsbibliothek Berlin. What little there is, shows great quality and makes one regret not more of Schneider’s music has survived to the present day. The style of Schneider’s music leans closely to the style of J.S. Bach, but shows traces of the galant style as well. Schneider had a thorough understanding of counterpoint. In his fugues and choral preludes he uses the usual tricks like diminution, stretto and inversion with ease and to great effect. Yet the music never becomes `learned’, the musical flow was obviously Schneider’s main concern when composing.

The Prelude in G major is a fine example of Schneider's style. In its fugue Schneider proves he knew his counterpoint. The subject of the fugue serves as countersubject of the fugue as well. Each entrace of the subject occurs halfway the previous entrance.

An edition containing all of Schneider's surviving organ compositions is available on my site: http://partitura.org/index.php/johann-schneider-organ-works-mus-ms-30377/

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