Chorale Composition
Encyclopedia
Chorale Composition is an important class of Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 organ composition based on chorale melodies. It became popular in the early seventeenth century and flourished in middle and northern Germany until the early eighteenth century.

Description

Chorale compositions are often classed loosely under the general heading of chorale prelude
Chorale prelude
In music, a chorale prelude is a short liturgical composition for organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works of J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 examples of the form in his Orgelbüchlein.-Function:The liturgical...

 perhaps due to its probable origin in the practice of church organists of playing a chorale tune all the way through as a prelude before the congregation sang it.

Composers

Examples of composers of chorale compositions include Samuel Scheidt
Samuel Scheidt
Samuel Scheidt was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era.-Biography:...

 and Sweelinck of the early Baroque period. Dietrich Buxtehude and Georg Bohm
Georg Böhm
Georg Böhm was a German Baroque organist and composer. He is notable for his development of the chorale partita and for his influence on the young J. S. Bach.-Life:Böhm was born in 1661 in Hohenkirchen, near Ohrdruf...

 represent the middle Baroque period, and J.S. Bach whose work represents the peak of the genre.
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