The Chorale Fantasia on ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’, BuxWV223, begins with a section in which the first part of the melody is given in long notes first to the pedals and then to the uppermost voice. The melody’s subsequent notes are the subject of the deceptively free-sounding passage which immediately follows, and at 2'07'' begins a section based on the descending scale with which the melody concludes. The second verse (from 3'15'') is a wonderfully exuberant jig fugue in AAB form (the form of the melody) whose initial subject is based on the melody’s first few notes (note how in the B section the momentum created by Buxtehude’s rhythms effortlessly sweeps up the repetitive phrases with which the melody’s last section begins).
from notes by Relf Clark © 2011
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