Neumeister Chorales
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Neumeister Chorales is the name commonly used for a recently discovered set of chorale preludes compiled by Johann Gottfried Neumeister (1757-1840). The manuscript was passed onto Christian Heinrich Rinck (1770-1846), whose library was bought by Lowell Mason in 1852. After Mason's death in 1873, his collection was acquired by Yale University, where it lay until it was discovered in 1985 by Hans-Joachim Schulze and Christoph Wolff.
This set consists of 82 organ chorales (38 of which are believed to be by Johann Sebastian Bach). BWVs 1090–1120, and BWVs 714, 719, 737, 742 and 756 are believed to be some of Bach's earliest works, and display a great variety of techniques. Through this variety, one can witness Bach's initial development as a composer, partly through relying on existing models (by composers such as Johann Pachelbel, Johann Michael and Johann Christoph Bach) and partly through original invention and experimentation.
