An Wasserflüssen Babylon is a chorale fantasia for organ by Johann Adam Reincken, based on "An Wasserflüssen Babylon", a 16th-century Lutheran hymn by Wolfgang Dachstein. Reincken likely composed the fantasia in 1663, partly as a tribute to Heinrich Scheidemann, his tutor and predecessor as organist at St. Catherine's Church, Hamburg. With its 327 bars, it is the most extended repertoire piece of this kind. Reincken's setting is a significant representative of the north German style of organ music.
History
The text of Wolfgang Dachstein's "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" (By the Rivers of Babylon) is a paraphrase of Psalm 137 (), Jews lamenting their Babylonian captivity. Its hymn tune is in bar form:
The hymn was published in 1525, and was adopted in several major German hymnals by 1740.
Heinrich Scheidemann can be considered the inventor of the chorale fantasia for organ, and, based on over fifteen attributable compositions, the most prolific contributor to this genre. It was an expansion of the Fantasia genre as developed by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Around the mid-1650s Reincken was, probably in about the same period as Dieterich Buxtehude, Scheidemann's pupil for a few years, after which he returned to the Netherlands. Called back by his former teacher in 1659, he became his assistant as organist at the St. Catherine's Church in Hamburg. Around 1660 the stylus fantasticus was the dominant style among the organists in Hamburg, of which the chorale fantasias by both Reincken and Buxtehude bear the mark.
In 1663 Scheidemann died and Reincken succeeded him as organist of the St. Catherine's Church. Allein zu dir, a late chorale fantasia by Scheidemann, shares many characteristics with Reincken's An Wasserflüssen Babylon, so it is assumed that Reincken composed his setting around the same time, as masterpiece to conclude his schooling, or, most likely, when he assumed his position as successor of Scheidemann at St. Catherine's. Reincken's chorale setting appears not to have been intended for liturgical use, neither as a prelude to a sung chorale, nor for alternatim performance, but rather as a model for improvisation, showing several techniques.
Music
In his An Wasserflüssen Babylon, Reincken covers all of the techniques of the chorale fantasia: , fugue, echo, figurative writing, and embellished chorale. The composition presents itself as a compendium of the north German style of organ music. The verses of Dachstein's chorale are in ten lines. Lines three and four are sung to the same melody as the first two lines, which is the of the chorale tune, thus lines one and two can be indicated as first , and the next two lines as repeat of the . Following Sweelinck's scheme for a fantasia, Reincken's An Wasserflüssen Babylon has three sections, "Exordium" (exposition), "Medium" (middle section) and "Finis" (finale): Exordium bars 1–81, lines 1–2 of the hymn. bars 82–107, lines 3–4 of the hymn. Medium bars 108–235, lines 5–8 of the hymn. Finis bars 236–327, lines 9–10 of the hymn.
Bars 1–107
In the "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" hymn, the is the tune for two lines of text, here represented by two bars:
First Stollen
The first two lines of the hymn text, or the first , are the subject of the first 81 bars of Reincken's chorale fantasia. The melody of the first line of the hymn is recognisable as a cantus firmus in the tenor voice in the first six bars of the composition:
The first section develops as a monody (played by the right hand) over a fugal setting, which is a technique typical of Scheidemann's chorale preludes. Thus, according to , this first episode can be seen as Reincken's tribute to Scheidemann.
The two lines are each treated with a dense counterpoint, which is similar for both lines. Over-all the figuration recedes in favour of a motet-like polyphony.
Repeat of the Stollen
The repeat of the , lines three and four of the hymn text, follows in bars 82 to 107. The repeat of the is shorter than the first , and introduces an element of virtuosity. In the third line the left hand plays, with imaginative embellishments in the tenor voice, up to the highest notes on the keyboard, while the fourth line is characterised by ornamentation of the treble voice.
Bars 108–235
Lines five to eight of the hymn tune have this melody, each line represented by a bar: