The chorale that is the basis for this chorale prelude is a musical setting of Psalm 103. The chorale melody is longer than the average Lutheran chorale to accommodate a larger-than-average text. The first verse reads as follows: "My soul praises the Lord, all that is in me, belongs to his name. His compassion enlarges, don't forget that, oh my heart. He has forgiven your sins and healed many great weaknesses, redeemed your poor life, and takes you into his lap, covering you with rich comfort, both the young and the old. The Lord rules righteously and protects those who come into his Kingdom."

Four different settings of this chorale by Buxtehude survive. This particular setting is the longest of the four. It is a chorale fantasy, but the chorale melody appears mostly in the soprano. Most of the time Buxtehude works with small fragments of the chorale melody creating echo effects between the ruckpositive and the hauptwerk manuals of the organ.

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BuxWV 214

The chorale that is the basis for this chorale prelude is a musical setting of Psalm 103. The chorale melody is longer than the average Lutheran chorale to accommodate a larger-than-average text. The first verse reads as follows: "My soul praises the Lord, all that is in me, belongs to his name. His compassion enlarges, don't forget that, oh my heart. He has forgiven your sins and healed many great weaknesses, redeemed your poor life, and takes you into his lap, covering you with rich comfort, both the young and the old. The Lord rules righteously and protects those who come into his Kingdom."

Four different settings of this chorale by Buxtehude survive. This setting is a bit unusual for Buxtehude. It begins like a chorale ricercar, with the chorale melody appearing in each voice in imitation, but because the chorale tune is so long, Buxtehude truncates the imitation so that most phrases of the chorale appear only in the soprano and bass in imitation.

© Andrus Madsen, All Music Guide

BuxWV 215

The chorale that is the basis for this chorale prelude is a musical setting of Psalm 103. The chorale melody is longer than the average Lutheran chorale to accommodate a larger-than-average text. The first verse reads as follows: "My soul praises the Lord, all that is in me, belongs to his name. His compassion enlarges, don't forget that, oh my heart. He has forgiven your sins and healed many great weaknesses, redeemed your poor life, and takes you into his lap, covering you with rich comfort, both the young and the old. The Lord rules righteously and protects those who come into his Kingdom."

Four different settings of this chorale by Buxtehude survive. This setting is somewhat old-fashioned relative to the rest of Buxtehude's output. It is in the style of the previous generation much like the BuxWV 213 setting of the same tune. The chorale melody appears in the soprano without any ornamentation and the figuration in the contrapuntal voices is quite quirky and interesting.

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