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Quoniam tu solus

Quantity in Basket: none Code: PMP1-JWH-20-011 Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Arranger: John Humphries Instrumentation: Horn in D, Bass and Piano/Organ (Horn parts in D and F included) Performance Time: 4:00 Grade Level: 4 Price:$11.00

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Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solus dominus, tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe For you alone are the holy one, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the most high, Jesus Christ Bach’s setting of the Quoniam text forms the penultimate movement of the Gloria in his Mass in B minor and is one of the most distinctive obbligatos in the horn repertoire. Although Bach assembled the Mass in about 1749, much of it dates from earlier in his career and the Quoniam was among the parts of the Gloria which were composed for the installation of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden in 1733. Details of 18th Century performances of the Quoniam are lost in the mists of history, but in 1838, when its first English performance took place, the horn player seems to have been ill-prepared for his performance. ‘The passages for the horn were next to impracticable’, wrote The Musical World; ‘the selection was slaughtered, soli players retiring in dismay, and leaving Mr Knyvett to play their parts on the organ’. While this edition is designed to enable players to perform this extraordinary movement as a separate concert item, it will also, I hope, help today’s musicians avoid such embarrassment. While no amount of practice can prepare for the wait of fifty minutes which the player must endure before playing the opening vertiginous octave in performances of the complete Mass, I hope that the opportunity for horn player and bass soloist to rehearse together with a pianist will prove welcome. John Humphries

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