Johann Heinrich Buttstett was born in 1666 in Bindersleben and died in Erfurt in 1727. He was a pupil of Johann Pachelbel. In 1691 he became organist at the Predigerkirche in Erfurt. Buttstett was somewhat acclaimed as a teacher during his years at the Predigerkirche, surrounding himself with a circle of pupils. The most important of these pupils were Johann Gottfried Walther and Georg Friedrich Kauffmann. He composed numerous organ works, including thirty-six chorale preludes.
No less than four of these are based on the melody of "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr". The one presented here today is a powerfull prelude in a rhapsodic style. The phrases of the choral melody are interspersed with rapid passages for the hands. The manuscript is not clear about whether this composition is meant manualiter of pedaliter. My performance is pedaliter, but I published a manualiter version of the score as well.
The collection of Buttstett choral preludes on my site is noy yet complete. Some 20 of them are now available, and hopefully the remaining 16 will be added as well in the future.
The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Sonus Paradisi, of the Hinsz organ in the Reformed church in the Midwolda (http://www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/netherlands/midwolda-surround-sample-set.html).
Scores of Buttstett's music: http://partitura.org/index.php/buttstett-johann-heinrich/
