Wilhelm Karges (?), Fantasia in D

Manuscript Am.B. 340, owned by the Staatsbibliothek Berlin, contains some 45 organ pieces, presumably copied by Wilhelm Karges. The composers are sometimes given with there initials, but most pieces remain anonymous in the manuscript. Most compositions contained in this manuscript are no longer than two facing pages, have a comparable length in time (three to four minutes), and some pieces have handy indications where to perform a repeat so the length of the piece can be varied if need be. It is most likely a practical organists organ book. And though most pieces are heavily adapted when compared to their original (if a original is known), the adaption is skillfully done and it remains beautiful music.

The Fantasia in D has no indication of a composer and the original model is not known to me. In the adaptation of Karges it consists of three sections. First an introduction of some 20 bars. Then follows a contrapuntal section in which the theme is ingeniously woven through al four voices. In the course of this section the first note of the theme is halfed in length and because it is played in stretto the result is that of a quickening of the pace of the composition. Near the end of this section only the first two notes of the theme remain in the musical discourse as a motivic building block and in the last bar the length is again halved forming a cadence on the tonic. The music could end here, but Karges gives two variants for a final section. In my performance I play the longest of these two variants.

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sample set of the Mascioni organ of the parish church in Azzio, made by Piotr Gabrowsky.

Score: http://partitura.org/index.php/wilhelm-karges-fantasia-in-d

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