Chorales arranged for keyboard?

[bardolph]

Hello all, I'm trying to study the Chorales from a baby composer's point of view.  Are there any piano-reduction editions of the chorales (or a substantal chunk thereof)?  I've been arranging "wachet auf" on my own for my two little hands, which can only stretch a minor 10th and certain major 10ths; it would sure be nice to have a text where someone else had done that work.

[bernhard]

Yes, there are several.

The one I like best is the Breitkopf edition no. 3765 because the notes are large and easily readable (the other editions tend to be microscopic).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bardolph]

Thank you Bernhard.  I found a few references to Breitkopf edition no. 3765 on the Web, but little information is given. For example, from the Sheet Music Plus website: "By Johann Sebastian Bach. For SATB. Published by Breitkopf & Hartel. (912002090)"

and from Breitkopf's site, all it says is this -- "389 Chorales with instrument obbligato - mix ch,pno"  

Does this mean that the piano scores are an exact reduction of the accompanying SATB scores?

[bernhard]

You are welcome.

Yes, that is correct. It is an exact copy of the chorales. However instead of being printed in "open" score (four staves SATB), it is arranged in two staves (SA on the treble staff and TB on the bass staff), S notes stem up, A notes stem down; T notes stem up, B notes stem down.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Egghead]

Hello all, I'm trying to study the Chorales from a baby composer's point of view.  Are there any piano-reduction editions of the chorales (or a substantal chunk thereof)?  I've been arranging "wachet auf" on my own for my two little hands, which can only stretch a minor 10th and certain major 10ths; it would sure be nice to have a text where someone else had done that work.

For quick access (and free ) try
https://www.tobis-notenarchiv.de/bach/07-Choraele/371_Choraele/index.htm

You can download the whole lot (all 371) as a zip file of 440kB. Set with the capella software. Have fun.
Egghead

p.s. I only have the free capella demo version, so I print by screen dumping into word...
https://www.capella-software.com/download.htm

[bardolph]

Excellent, the Capella thing works a treat! Now to do enough stretching exercises so I can play an octave and a half with my left hand

Thanks to you both.

[Egghead]

Excellent, the Capella thing works a treat! Now to do enough stretching exercises so I can play an octave and a half with my left hand

Thanks to you both.

You are welcome -  I'd forgotten to mention they look like exact copies as well. You can often manage with T briefly moved to RH  , so your left hand just plays one part and stays in one piece.
And of course capella plays them for you as well...