Meditation

Drawing on her deep admiration for Johann Sebastian Bach, Sofia Gubaidulina has produced several works based on his music. For her Meditation on the Bach Chorale "Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit", she says she was guided by her personal experience of the inner numerical relationships in the formal structure of the chorale prelude BWV 668. In four sections, the piece for strings and harpsichord meditates on the tonal and numerical relationships within the Bach chorale until it is finally heard in its entirety and the harpsichord succinctly sets the final point with the tone sequence B-A-C-H.
Instrumentation:
harpsichord, 2 violins, viola, cello and double bass