Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt

Duration: 7:00
Completed: 2005
Instrumentation: Solo Organ
Dedication: for Heike

Program Notes

The hymn “Durch Adam’s fall ist ganz verderbt” is about the first sin of Adam and Eve, which caused God to expel them from paradise, and death to enter the world. The corruption of those two introduced a curse of corruption, an inescapeable sinning behaviour to people, which caused them to be separated from God until Jesus Christ, the new Adam, died as a sacrifice for the sins of all, in effect undoing the corruption of Adam. Preluding generally moves through the first verse of the hymn, which in “Durch Adam’s fall…” discusses the first sin and expulsion from paradise. It is about how things fall apart.

The piece begins in the bygone and archaic Baroque style. In one of the traditional fashions, phrases from the chorale and accompanimental lines alternately take center stage. In the midst of this well-worn drama, the music becomes corrupted as a recorded piece might when it ages poorly; the harmonies “go south”, and things get lower as things slow down (a natural phenomenon; slower sounds are “lower”, faster sounds “higher”), and things become distorted in form as with a overheating photo negative.