J.S. Bach: Nun freut euch, liebe Christen g'mein, BWV 734-Simon Preston/Peter Hurford

The melody of "Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gemein" is one of the earliest Lutheran hymn tunes, having been derived by Martin Luther himself in 1524 (the tune was also associated, from 1682 on, with the text "Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit," and one will occasionally find BWV 734 under that title). Bach puts this cantus firmus in the tenor voice, to be played by the inner fingers of the left hand while the bass moves along in steady eighth notes and the right hand indulges in a florid sixteenth-note obbligato whose opening tones subtly foreshadow, in outline, the first five or six notes of the tenor's cantus firmus melody. As in the original hymn, the first pair of phrases are repeated; the final three phrases make for one long push towards the final G major cadence, richly extended (in Bach's usual plagal/subdominant way) by the running bass and treble obbligato under the umbrella of the tenor's sustained G pedal tone.