Christmas/Holiday Duets - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring Excerpt

[rrayner]

Originally Posted by RRR

This piece is written for Soprano Recorder and Alto Recorder. Play along with Notation Composer or print the piece for playing with your friend(s). Please feel free to change the instruments and/or keys to suit your personal needs. RRR

"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", also known as "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben", is a cantata written by Johann Sebastian Bach. This duet is a very demanding piece. Playing all of the notes is tough enough, but all wind instrument players will have a challenge in getting enough air to play all the notes. The basic melody is Bach's, however I have taken considerable liberties with the harmony and countermelodies, changing the original quite freely. It is my hope that the purists won't take too much offense, and that Bach would be happy to be hearing his melody played, whatever the presentation may be.

I have put in slurs, indicating where to breath (very quickly), but you may find that you can either play longer without a fresh breath, or require shorter phrases to keep from passing out. I have swapped the melody back and forth between the soprano and alto a couple of times, to give the alto a little more to do. Also, I have posted this piece with a time signature of 9/8. The free score that I downloaded as a starting point showed both 3/4 and 9/8 in the time signature. To my mind the 9/8 is a lot cleaner and easier to read, as the 3/4 version uses eighth-note triplets, and therefore has a lot more black ink on the page.

Cynthia and I keep this piece in our Christmas/Holiday section, as it seems fitting to us. We are having a lot of fun with this piece -- we hope you do also.

Ralph Rayner

12/04/2012 - On the original posting, I forgot to include the song title on page 2 and didn't remember to include page numbers. Too late perhaps for anyone who has downloaded it already, but good for future visitors. RRR

[Sherry C]

Hi Ralph,

Listening to this as I type using GPO flutes - beautiful!

Thanks for sharing, and I'll have to break out a whistle and play along.
Wish you and Cynthia could be here today for our Christmas Open House to play it for us in person I'll be printing this one off to have handy for any fellow wind players who might happen along today.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Sherry C]

Hi Ralph,

Just thought I should let you know that I borrowed your score and altered it for whistle to play as a solo for the offertory at church yesterday.

Thanks
Sherry

[rrayner]

Sherry, I would have loved to have heard you. Thank you. RRR