Bach: Komm, Heiliger Geist (BWV 651) | John Challenger, Salisbury Cathedral

J. S. Bach's Fantasia super 'Komm, Heiliger Geist' (BWV 651) played on the organ of Salisbury Cathedral.

in organo pleno / il canto fermo nel pedale

A tour-de-force of an organ chorale with extraordinary momentum, and the only chorale setting known for certain to have been entitled 'Fantasia' by Bach himself. In the hands, unrelenting semiquaver voices pile in above a thunderous long-held pedal note, after which the pedal line declaims the cantus firmus: the Pentecost hymn 'Come, holy ghost'. Peter Williams: 'The ebullient, ecstatic semiquavers never cease for a moment.'

Come Holy Ghost, Lord God,
fill with the goodness of your grace
the heart, spirit and mind of your believers,
kindle your ardent love in them.


Video assistance: Jake Reynolds.