(Ger. Choralfantasie).
In its broadest and most common meaning, any large organ composition based on a chorale melody. Such works were composed by north German organists during the mid- and late 17th century, notably by Scheidemann, Tunder and Buxtehude, although the term itself was rarely used by the composers. In these elaborate organ compositions a German chorale melody is freely developed, each phrase normally treated several times in different ways. Bach applied the term ‘fantasia’ during his Weimar period to a variety of different organ chorale types, but in Leipzig he limited the term to large compositions with the chorale melody presented as a cantus firmus in the bass. (The term ‘chorale fantasia chorus’ is sometimes applied to the elaborate opening chorus of a chorale cantata by Bach, but this usage is misleading, since Bach’s chorale choruses are usually cast in a clear form, most frequently that of the ritornello concerto or the chorale motet.) In the late 19th century, as cultivated by Reger, the chorale fantasia became a rhapsodic organ composition of monumental dimensions based on a chorale melody.
See Chorale settings.
ROBERT L. MARSHALL