Editing Chorale prelude (section)

==Baroque period==
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[[File:Scheidt Tabulatura.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Title page of Scheidt's ''Tabulatura Nova'']]
{{listen|filename=O Lamm Gottes BWV1095.ogg|title=O Lamm Gottes unschuldig, BWV 1095|description=One of the [[Neumeister Chorales]] by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], performed by Ulrich Metzner|format=[[Ogg]]}}
[[Image:Dieterich Buxtehude.jpg|right|thumb|The only known painting of Buxtehude (detail, Johannes Voorhout, 1674)]]

Among the old masters who wrote chorale preludes is [[Samuel Scheidt]].<ref name="Ritter1884">{{IMSLP|work=Zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels (Ritter, August Gottfried)|cname= August Gottfried Ritter. ''Zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels''. Leipzig: Max Hesse, 1884.}}</ref><ref>{{IMSLP|work=Choralvorspiele alter Meister (Straube, Karl)|cname=Karl Straube. ''Choralvorspiele alter Meister''. Edition Peters, 1907.}}</ref> His ''[[Tabulatura Nova]]'', containing several such works, was published in 1624.<ref name="Ritter1884" /><ref>{{IMSLP|work=Tabulatura Nova, SSWV 102-158 (Scheidt, Samuel)|cname=Samuel Scheidt. ''Tabulatura Nova''. Hamburg: Michael Hering, 1624.}}</ref> [[Sweelinck]] is also typical of the early Baroque period.

Chorale preludes also appear in the works of [[Dieterich Buxtehude]] and [[Georg Böhm]]. Over 40 chorale preludes by Buxtehude have survived to this day.<ref name="Snyder">Snyder, Kerala J. Dieterich Buxtehude: Organist in Lübeck. New York: Schirmer Books, 1987.</ref><ref>Sadie, Stanley and John Tyrell (eds.). ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,'' 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2001.</ref>{{verify source|date=November 2017|reason=which entry?}}

[[Johann Pachelbel]]'s compositions are another example of the form, with many of his chorale preludes elaborating upon Protestant chorale melodies.<ref>Melville, Ruth. ''The Chorale Preludes of Johann Pachelbel''. "Bulletin of the American Musicological Society, Nº3, pp.11–12. Apr., 1939.</ref>

The best-known composer of chorale preludes is [[Johann Sebastian Bach]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Bach - Chorales: a guide|url=http://www.classicfm.com/composers/bach/guides/chorales-guide/|website=Classic FM|access-date=2 December 2017|language=en}}</ref> His earliest extant compositions, works for organ which he possibly wrote before his fifteenth birthday, include the chorale preludes [[BWV&nbsp;700]], [[BWV 724|724]], [[Neumeister Chorales|1091, 1094, 1097, 1112, 1113 and 1119]].<ref>Works {{BDW|0820}}, {{BDW|0847}}, {{BDW|1277}}, {{BDW|1280}}, {{BDW|1283}}, {{BDW|1298}}, {{BDW|1299}} and {{BDW|1305}} at [[Bach Digital]] website</ref>

In Bach's early ''[[Orgelbüchlein]]'' (1708-1717), the chorale melody is usually in the upper part and the accompanying lower parts, while being highly elaborate in their harmonic and contrapuntal detail, the beginnings and endings of phrases generally coincide with those of the chorale.  An example is "Jesu, meine Freude", where the chorale melody in the upper part is supported by a closely woven and harmonically subtle counterpoint in three parts:[[File:Jesu meine Freude from Orgelbuchlein.png|thumb|center|500px|''Jesu, meine Freude'' from the Orgelbuchlein. [[File:Jesu meine Freude from Orgelbuchlein.wav|thumb|Jesu meine Freude (BWV 610)]]]]

Peter Williams (1972, p.&nbsp;27) says of the ''[[Orgelbüchlein]]'': “Each approach to Bach’s organ chorales – their beauty, their ‘symbolism’, their mastery- is rewarding.” <ref>Williams, P. Bach Organ Music.  London, BBC.</ref>  Williams continues (1972, p29) “One of the most remarkable features of most of the settings is that the accompaniment and the motifs from which it is composed are newly invented and are not related thematically to the melody.”

By contrast, in the prelude on ''{{lang|de|[[Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme]]}}'' (BWV 645) from the set of six [[Schübler Chorales]], taken from earlier [[cantata]] movements, the accompaniment is a free-flowing obbligato which both derives from the chorale melody, yet seems to float independently over it.  "The achieving of a melody independent of the cantus firmus, though in principle it is familiar in obbligato arias, is here unusually complete."<ref>Williams, P. (1980, p.112) ''The Organ Music of J.S. Bach: Vol. II, Works based on Chorales''. Cambridge University Press.</ref> Julian Mincham (2010) sees an asymmetry here that is possibly rooted in the chorale itself “with its slightly puzzling mixture of different phrase lengths”:<ref name="Mincham">{{cite web|last=Mincham|first=Julian|date=2010|url=http://www.jsbachcantatas.com/documents/chapter-55-bwv-140.htm|title=Chapter 55 BWV 140 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme / Awake! The Watchman′s voice commands us|access-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>
[[File:Wachet auf chorale melody only.png|thumb|center|700px|Chorale melody (cantus firmus) of ''Wachet auf.'']]
Two melodic ideas from the chorale, labelled (a) and (b) above are embedded in the [[obbligato]] line:
[[File:Wachet auf - bars with voices only.png|thumb|center|600px|''{{lang|de|Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme}}'' (BWV 645)]]
Mincham says that while “theme and chorale are not designed to begin and end together… [they] fit together perfectly. Get to know the chorale and ritornello melodies well and the apparently effortless ways in which they inter-relate will become obvious. The important point is that they seem not to fit; but they do.”<ref name="Mincham" />