Showcase-Sunday | Johann Heinrich Bodecker, Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott

#showcase-sunday is an initiative started by @nonameslefttouse where we gather some long buried content to showcase (hopefully) to new sets of eyes. My Steem journey is only one and a half year old. The first year or so I happily posted my stuff for only a few readers. So, I like the change to post some of it again, my own personal favorites.

This post from june 2018 features a newly edited composition from an virtually unknown composer. As far as I know it has never been been published before.

My original post is here: https://steemit.com/classical-music/@partitura/johann-heinrich-bodecker-herr-jesu-christ-wahr-mensch-und-gott

A recording of the music is at the end of this post.

Score available here: http://partitura.org/index.php/johann-heinrich-bodecker-herr-jesu-christ-wahr-mensch-und-gott

Johann Heinrich Bodecker (or Bödecker) was born in Bremen in 1640 or 1641. In 1667 he became a member of the court orchestra of the Elector of Brandenburg in Berlin, at 200 reichstalers per annum. In 1674 the city council of Bremen appointed Bodecker as organist of St Mary's church and asked the elector in Berlin to let him go. But the elector refused. Instead he appointed Bodecker as assistant organist of the Berlin cathedral (with the right pf succession) and raised his salary to 250 rt. p.a. In 1679 Bodecker's salary is raised to 300 rt., the same as that of the cathedral organist, Wilhelm Karges. Finally, in 1699 Bodecker succeeds Karges. His salary is now 352 rt. He retires in 1708, dies in 1713.

All this shows Bodecker was much in favor. Yet no music by his hands survives that I know of. Until now: I present an organ work, possibly written by Bodecker. The work can be found in manuscript Mus Ms 30439, owned by the Staatbibliothek in Berlin. The manuscript contains some 120 pages, that for the largest part are in very bad shape. The pages where Bocdeker's piece is written are stained, torn and parts are missing because the paper has become brittle and even because parts have been cut out. Luckily, the piece is a set of variations on the melody of "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott". Each variation has the unaltered melody in one of the voices. So it is possible to determine exactly how much is missing.
To make a playable score, I filled in the missing parts. The filled in notes are indicated in the score by using a smaller font. So, the normal notes are from Bodecker, the small notes are my addition to make it a playable piece.

My first attribution of this piece was to Henricus Radeker, the first organist of the Müller-organ in Haarlem. Hence, the recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Voxus, of the Müller organ in the Sint Bavokerk, Haarlem (http://www.voxusorgans.com/en/product/haarlem).The tenth and final variation is just a bicinium, so to end the piece on a grander scale, I repeat the opening chorale setting on 16 feet plenum, in the final chord even throwing in both 32 feet stops.

Chorale:
BW: Praestant 8', Octaaf 4'
Ped: Praestant 16', Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4'

Variatio Prima
HW: Octaaf 8', Quintpraestant 3' (RH)
RW: Holpijp 8', Tregter Regaal 8' (LH)

Variatio Secunda
BW: Praestant 8, Octaaf 4', Nasard 3' (RH)
RW: Holpijp 8', Trompet 8' (LH)

Variatio Tertia
HW: Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4', Gemshoorn 4', Quintpraestant 3', Woudfluit 2', Oboe 8'
Ped: Praestant 16', Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4', Trompet 8'

Variatio Quarta
BW: Praestant 8', Octaaf 4', Dolceaan 8' (RH)
HW: Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4', Quintpraestant 3', Trompet 8' (LH)
Ped: Praestant 16', Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4'

Variatio Quinta
HW: Roerfluit 8', Oboe 8' (RH)
RW: Holpijp 8', Fluitdouce 4', Tregter Regaal 8' (LH)
Ped: Octaaf 8', Holfluit 8'

Variatio Sexta
BW: Quitadena 8'(RH)
HW: Roerfluit 8', Gemshoorn 4' (RH)

Variatio Septima
BW: Baarpijp 8', Flagfluit 4', Vox Humana 8', Tremulant (LH)
RW: Holpijp 8', Quintadena 8', Fluitdouce 4' (RH)

Variatio Octava
HW: Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4', Quintpraestant 3', Woudfluit 2'
RW: Praestant 8', Octaaf 4', Superoctaaf 2'
HW+RW

Variatio Nona:
BW: Quintadena 16', Praestant 8', Quintadena 8', Baarpijp 8' (RH)
HW: Bourdon 16' (LH)
RW: Praestant 8', Octaaf 4', Speelfluit 3'
Ped: Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4', Holfluit 2', Cink 2'
HW+RW

Variatio Decima
HW: Praestant 16', Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4', Quintpraestant 3', Woudfluit 2', Trompet 8' (LH)
RW: Praestant 8', Octaaf 4', Speelfluit 3', Superoctaaf 2', Mixtuur, Cornet, Fagot 16', Trompet 8' (RH)

Reprise Chorale
BW: Praestant 8', Octaaf 4', Nasard 3', Nachthoorn 2', Mixtuur
HW: Praestant 16', Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4', Quintpraestant 3', Woudfluit 2', Scherp, Tertiaan, Trompet 8'
RW: Praestant 8', Octaaf 4', Speelfluit 3', Superoctaaf 2', Mixtuur,Trompet 8'
Ped: Praestant 16', Octaaf 8', Octaaf 4', Mixtuur, Bazuin 16', Trompet 8'
HW+BW, HW+RW, Ped+HW
Final bar:
Ped: +Praestant 32', +Bazuin 32'