This prelude sets the melody of a chant from the Catholic Gregorian chant repertoire that was sung at Christmas time. The text of the chant reads as follows, "A boy is born in Bethlehem that is why Jerusalem rejoices. The word of the father in the highest has taken on the flesh of a human body and as Gabriel announced, a virgin conceived a son." The cantus firmus appears with some embellishment in the soprano. Most Buxtehude preludes with an embellished chorale melody in the soprano are in common time, but this one is in 3/2 time, perhaps because the source is a chant rather than a chorale.

© All Music Guide