Back Before Bach: Baroque organ music. Repertoire: Johann Sebastian Bach's Christ lag in Todes Banden, Dieterich Buxtehude's Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist, Franz Tunder's Komm heiliger Geist (excerpt), Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck's Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, Arnolt Schlick's Maria zart, Christopher Thorpe's Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, Johann Sebastian Bach's In dir ist Freude 

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Johann Sebastian Bach's musical genius was influenced by centuries of tradition before his birth in 1685. Our journey begins and ends with chorale preludes from Bach's Orgelbüchlein, and traces the tradition of the chorale prelude back to the 15th century before ending with a new piece and perhaps Bach's finest chorale prelude. Bach imagined over a hundred pieces for the Orgelbüchlein and only completed a few dozen; Thorpe's Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern imagines one of the never-completed titles in Bach's style with a canon of the chorale melody at the octave. 

Christopher Thorpe is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, organist, and chorister. He has been the interim director of music at St. Stephen's Church in Belvedere, CA, and a professional choir member or regular sub at Grace Cathedral (San Francisco), Cathedral of Christ the Light (Oakland), and Church of the Advent (Boston). As an undergraduate, Dr. Thorpe completed a joint concentration in computer science and music. He has served on the Boards of Directors of Early Music America and Blue Heron Renaissance Choir. He performed many times in Arts First as a member of the Harvard University Choir and (currently-named) Choral Fellows, the Harvard Wind Ensemble, and chamber music groups. He also holds a Ph.D. from Harvard in computer science and currently teaches "Software Engineering with Generative AI" at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.