Chorale Fantasia

The Chorale Fantasia (or Chorale Fantasy, or Choral..., de: Choralfantasie) is a genre of piece from the North German Organ School.

The chorale fantasia was described by Pieter Dirksen thus:

In this exclusive niche of works based on a chorale, the scope of the composition going far beyond that of the chorale melody itself is achieved by repeating, coloring, and fragmentating the individual chorale phrases. The potential of (at least) two manuals (and pedal) are fully exploited by alternating the melodic material between both hands and pedal, by inserting sections of unembellished melody, by fragmenting, and by extensively using echo techniques. Created in this way was a convincing as well as highly original redisigning of the great fantasia type coming from Scheidemann's teacher Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, thereby linking the quasi-concertante duties (Sunday vespers) of a Hamburg principal organist at the start of the 17th century with the fantasia, the then "highest" form of keyboard music.

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