The influence of the style of G. Böhm, which betrays itself from one end to the other of these compositions, and their resemblance to clavecin pieces, would seem to indicate that they belong to the Lüneburg period, when Bach had but rarely, at best, an organ at his disposal. Here we find heavy, solid chords, undoubtedly intended to augment the tone of the weak instrument, as the profuse ornaments were to prolong it. They are written without pedal, or, at most, in one variation, for the pedal of a clavecin; for the pedal part of this last variation of _Christ, der Du bist der helle Tag_ cannot be played upon the organ as it is written; the whole design of the sixteenth-notes in the left hand would be covered up. On the contrary, entrusted to the basses of the clavecin, which do not prolong the tone, they merely serve to accentuate the rhythm. The chorale _Christ lag in Todesbanden_[126] is analogous in character, and doubtless belongs to the same period.[127] [Footnote 126: P. vi, 15.] [Footnote 127: This also must have been written for the clavecin; the right hand passing over the left in order to strike the bass note _e_, held meanwhile by the pedal, clearly indicates the intention of thereby prolonging the sound.] Among the chorales of the earlier years should be included a prelude in _G_ major upon _Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern_.[128] This work dates, perhaps, from Arnstadt; three other chorales, published by Commer,[129] and similar to those of Christopher Bach, are of still earlier origin. [Footnote 128: Published by Ritter: _Geschichte des Orgelspiels_, part ii, p. 181.] [Footnote 129: _Musica Sacra_, vol. i, p. 5.] Aside from these chorales, which are separate, and a few others equally isolated, of which we shall speak in their proper place, the greater part of the Bach chorales have been brought together in various collections, although some have been published separately. I In chronological order, the first of these collections is the _Orgelbüchlein_.[130] [Footnote 130: _Orgelbüchlein Worinne einem anfahenden Organisten Anleitung gegeben wird, auff allerhand Arth einen Choral durchzuführen, anbey auch sich im Pedal Studio zu habilitiren, indem in solchen darinne befindlichen Choralen das Pedal gantz obligat tractiret wird. Dem Höchsten Gott allein zu ehren, Dem Nechsten, draus sich zu belehren. Autore Joanne Sebast. Bach p.t. Capellae Magistro S.P.R. Anhaltini-Cotheniensis._ The chorales of the _Orgelbüchlein_ are published in the fifth volume of the Peters, and in the twenty-fifth year of the _Bach-Gesellschaft_ edition. W. Rust, in the latter volume, has preserved the order adopted by Bach in the succession of these chorales, which is according to the church year.]