UPDATED 11/25/2010

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Johann Sebastian Bach
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Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt, BWV 637 Click to Listen [2:3]
One of the strangest chromatic treatments the Phantom Organist has ever conveyed, and yet it's just as Bach wrote it. The pedal skips in sevenths (depicting Adam's fall?) under the tortured chromatic changes, and it appears to change keys abruptly several times at the end (disorientation at being thrown out of Paradise?). Midi File available. Instrument: Marcussen & Son Organ / St. Stefanuschurch / Moerdijk (Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands) (1965) - Samples by Ariaan Hoogendijk

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Chorale Text
German:
Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt
Menschlich' Natur und Wesen,
Dasselb' Gift ist auf uns geerbt,
Dass wir nicht konnt'n genesen
Ohn' Gottes Trost,
Der uns erlöst
Hat von dem grossen Schaden,
Darein die Schlang'
Evan bezwang,
Gott's Zorn auf sich zu laden.

English:
When Adam fell, the human race
Was doomed to condemnation;
Bereft were we of innocence,
Sin's poison wrought destruction,
But thanks to God,
Who spares the rod,
From death have we been taken.
The Serpent Eve
Didst once deceive
Beholds his power shaken.
--Tr. C.S. Terry


Audio track was created with Hauptwerk v. 1 software