page_title: Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her"
section_title: Musical structure
hierarchical_section_title: Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her" / Musical structure
caption_attribution_description: English: Title of title page engraved version of the Canonic Variations on the Christmas hymn "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her", BWV 769, by J. S. Bach for organ with two manuals and pedals
context_page_description: The Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her", BWV 769, are a set of five variations in canon for organ with two manuals and pedals by Johann Sebastian Bach on the Christmas hymn by Martin Luther of the same name. The variations were prepared as a showpiece for Bach's entry as fourteenth member of Mizler's Music Society in Leipzig in 1747. The original printed edition of 1747, in which only one line of the canon was marked in the first three variations, was published by Balthasar Schmid in Nuremberg. Another version BWV 769a appears in the later autograph manuscript P 271, which also contains the six trio sonatas for organ BWV 525–530 and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes BWV 651–668. In this later version Bach modified the order of the variations, moving the fifth variation into a central position, and wrote out all the parts in full, with some minor revisions to the score.
  These [variations] are full of passionate vitality and poetical feeling. The heavenly hosts soar up and down, their lovely song sounding out over the cradle of the Infant Christ, while the multitude of the redeemed "join the sweet song with joyful hearts."
caption: Printed version of first variation of BWV 769
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