page_title: Clavier-Übung III
section_title: Penitence BWV 686, 687
hierarchical_section_title: Clavier-Übung III / Chorale preludes BWV 669–689 / Chorale preludes BWV 678–689 (Lutheran catechism) / Penitence BWV 686, 687
caption_attribution_description: English: Title page of Part III of Tabulatura Nova for organ
context_page_description: The Clavier-Übung III, sometimes referred to as the German Organ Mass, is a collection of compositions for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach, started in 1735–36 and published in 1739. It is considered Bach's most significant and extensive work for organ, containing some of his most musically complex and technically demanding compositions for that instrument.
  In its use of modal forms, motet-style and canons, it looks back to the religious music of masters of the stile antico, such as Frescobaldi, Palestrina, Lotti and Caldara. At the same time, Bach was forward-looking, incorporating and distilling modern baroque musical forms, such as the French-style chorale.
  The work has the form of an Organ Mass: between its opening and closing movements—the prelude and "St Anne" fugue in E♭ major, BWV 552—are 21 chorale preludes, BWV 669–689, setting parts of the Lutheran mass and catechisms, followed by four duets, BWV 802–805. The chorale preludes range from compositions for single keyboard to a six-part fugal prelude with two parts in the pedal.
context_section_description: BWV 686 Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (Out of the depths I cry to Thee) play 
  Below is the text of the first and last verses of Luther's hymn with the English translation by Charles Sanford Terry:
  Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir,
  
  Herr Gott, erhör mein Rufen.
  
  Dein gnädig Ohren kehr zu mir
  
  und meiner Bitt sei öffne;
  
  denn so du willst das sehen an,
  
  was Sünd und Unrecht ist getan,
  
  wer kann, Herr, vor dir bleiben?
  
  Darum auf Gott will hoffen ich,
  
  auf mein Verdienst nicht bauen;
  
  auf ihn mein Herz soll lassen sich
  
  und seiner Güte trauen,
  
  die mir zusagt sein wertes Wort;
  
  das ist mein Trost und treuer Hort,
  
  das will ich allzeit harren.
  Out of the depths I cry to Thee,
  
  Lord, hear me, I implore Thee!
  
  Bend down Thy gracious ear to me,
  
  Let my prayer come before Thee!
  
  If Thou rememberest each misdeed,
  
  If each should have its rightful meed,
  
  Who may abide Thy presence?
  
  And thus my hope is in the Lord,
  
  And not in mine own merit;
  
  I rest upon His faithful word
  
  To them of contrite spirit;
  
  That He is merciful and just—
  
  Here is my comfort and my trust,
  
  His help I wait with patience.
  It is significant of Bach's manner of feeling that he should choose this chorale for the crowning point of his work. For it cannot be questioned that this chorale is its crowning point, from the ingenuity of the part-writing, the wealth and nobility of the harmonies, and the executive power which it requires. Even the Northern masters had never attempted to write two parts for the pedals throughout, though they had first introduced the two-part treatment of the pedals, and Bach did them full justice in this piece.
  — Philipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, 1873
  The chorale prelude Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir BWV 686 is a monumental chorale motet in the phrygian mode of C. The climax of Clavier-Übung III, it is composed in the strict polyphonic stile antico of Palestrina using florid counterpoint. This is Bach's unique six-part composition for organ, if the Ricercar a 6 from the Musical Offering BWV 1079 is discounted. German organ writing for double pedal (doppio pedale) can be traced back to Arnolt Schlick and Ludwig Senfl in the 16th century; to Samuel Scheidt in two settings from his Tabulatura Nova in the early 17th century; and in the baroque period to Buxtehude, Reincken, Bruhns, Tunder, Weckmann and Lübeck. In France, among the composers to have written double pedal parts were François Couperin, in his organ mass des paroisses, and Louis Marchand.
  The first verse of Luther's hymn had already been set by Bach in the cantata Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38 (1724). The fact that the setting in BWV 686 flows more easily, has more countersubjects, has more novel features and has typically organ figurations in the final section has suggested that in this case the whole of Luther's text was taken into account and that it is a purer version of the stile antico. Following the huge scale of the opening, Bach highly inventively incorporates motifs from the cantus firmus into the countersubjects of the seven sections (counting the repeat), resulting in a constantly changing musical texture. The widest range in pitch between upper and lower parts occurs exactly halfway through at bar 27. At the end of each line the cantus firmus is taken up in the left (lower) pedal, which, without break, then plays the countersubject while above the right (upper) pedal concludes the section by playing the cantus firmus in the tenor register in augmentation (i.e., with doubled note lengths). The proliferation of dactyl "joy" motifs (a crotchet followed by two quavers) in the last section of the prelude reflects the optimism in the last verse.
  Williams (2003) has given the following analysis of the seven sections:
  first and third line: fugal section, with stretti in tenor and soprano manual voices at b.3 and in bass and soprano manual parts in b.9; countersubject with syncopation and crotchet figures
  second and fourth line: the rising three-note phrase or caput at the start of the melody occurs in minims or crotchets in all parts, all of which mov
caption: Title page of Part III of Samuel Scheidt's Tabulatura Nova, 1624. The Modum ludendi and Benedicamus had six parts with double pedal
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