Georg Böhm (1661-1733), whose name has at last been linked to J. S. Bach's as his teacher in Lüneburg (apud "Weimarer Orgeltabulatur", Herausgegeben von Michael Maul und Peter Wollny - Baerenreiter), was the author of three chorale preludes on the chorale "Vater unser im Himmelreich".
No autograph manuscript of Böhm's keyboard (organ and harpsichord) music has ever reached us.
We came to get in touch with this genius thanks to pre World War II non-autographic authenticated sources, which had fortunately been published prior to the ominous conflagration.
In this outstanding artistic piece of musical sensibility and geniality, Böhm, who had already been caught under the spell of French organ music, assembles the figured bass (pedalboard), the german accompaniment (left hand) and the French aria (right hand), producing a result that is widely acknowledged as one of the jewels of baroque organ music, the first version of the chorale above mentioned.
According to Laukvik (("Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing", Vol. I, p. 132, "Carus" - Stuttgart, 1996) the ornaments so far considered as having been added by Johann Gottfried Walther (copy P 802) originated from Böhm himself instead, although, even under French influence, such an ornamental abundance was uncommon in Northern Germany tradition.
