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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2024
During this time, in order not to forget my first vocation, I was working with Albert Schweitzer on an edition of the Preludes, Fugues, and Chorales by J. S. Bach that the New York publisher Schirmer had requested from us. The five volumes of Preludes and Fugues have been published, each piece with its preface, indications of general feeling, registration, and tempo, that is to say, preceded by three or four large pages in-folio; each Chorale text has been translated, and the translation made by the musician. The Schirmer firm, having gone through some rough times, still exists, but we are still waiting for the edition of the Chorales, the original publishers, alas, having died.
Schirmer not having published the Chorales, I asked Charles Delagrave if he would agree to publish the French translation of the chorale texts in a small book that all French organists could have at hand, each chorale being annotated, studied, and detailed. Unfortunately, this publisher was afraid of getting involved in a venture that would not be sufficiently profitable, and we left it at that. I’m sorry about this, because only a man like Schweitzer can give us the true meaning of this singular work of J. S. Bach, the musician-poet.
The Preludes and Fugues: I don't have to go back over the performance style of Bach, with which many naive musicians have allowed themselves so much license and fantasy. They forget that of all instruments, the only one whose sound can “last forever” is the organ. Its sound gives us the example of perfect breathing, free from any unevenness or fluctuation. As for the articulation of repeated notes, this articulation must have, in a moderate tempo, half the value of the note. What is style? It is the absolute respect of the composer's text, each printed note of which must be rendered as he intended.
When Schweitzer came to Paris in the winter to complete his liturgical studies, he used the opportunity to study organ with me. I myself went every summer to Gunsbach, near Colmar, to finish the chapters that had not been completed in Paris. I stayed in Gunsbach in a charming village inn that lies at the foot of the tragic Hartmannswillerkopf Mountain.
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