Bringing old scores up to par | Johann Nicolaus Hanff, Auf meinen lieben Gott

I started my website, http://partitura.org a little over 5 years ago. In those five years I have published more thant 750 scores. And in those five years I have learned a lot about typestting, music engraving, and hte finer points of using mt engraving engine, Lilypond.

The scores I published 5 years ago are mostly not up to my current standard. They are not bad, just not as good as they now know they can be. Therefore I decided to spend some time to rework them. And while I do that, I might as well play some of them again. Just my personal favorites.

One of those favorites is the prelude to "Auf meinen lieben Gott" by Johann Nicolaus Hanff.

Johann Nikolaus Hanff (1663–1711) was a North German organist and composer. Little is known about his early life. Till 1696 he lived in Hamburg where he was a music teacher. By his own saying, Johann Mattheson was one of them. From 1696 Hanff was organist at the Eutiner Hof of the prince-bishop of Lübeck. After the death of bishop August Friedrich and the dissolution of the Eutiner Hof, probably in 1705, Hanff returned to Hamburg, where his two children were born in 1706 and 1711. On August 26, 1711 he took over the organist chair at the Schleswiger Dom, however he died some months later.

Only a few organ compositions of Hanff survive. Six chorale preludes of Hanff are known today, thanks to copies made by Johann Gottfried Walther. The chorale prelude "Auf meinen lieben Gott" is transcribed from the Frankberger manuscript, owned by the Nederlands Muziekinstituut. It is beautifully written in typical North German fashion. The choral melody is folowed closely, though heavily embellished.

Again a composer of which I wish more works survived to the present day.

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Sonus Paradisi, of the Hinsz organ in the Reformed church in the Midwolda (http://www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/netherlands/midwolda-surround-sample-set.html).

Score: http://partitura.org/index.php/johann-nicolaus-hanff-auf-meinen-lieben-gott/