Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist,
harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and
secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo
instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque
period and brought it to its ultimate maturity.
Although he did not introduce new forms, he enriched
the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal
technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and
motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms,
forms and textures from abroad, p...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist,
harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and
secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo
instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque
period and brought it to its ultimate maturity.
Although he did not introduce new forms, he enriched
the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal
technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and
motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms,
forms and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy
and France.
The date of this piece can't be pinpointed beyond
asserting that it comes from Bach's Weimar years, 1708
- 1717. The ten-bar fantasia is more complicated than
it looks. On paper, it's just a series of chords taking
less than a minute to play; in reality, the
harpsichordist is expected to arpeggiate and improvise
on the chords as lavishly as desired, exploring the
chords' dissonances and harmonic surprises. The driven
fugue, Bach's longest outside The Art of the Fugue,
shares its basic theme with Bach's Fugue for organ in A
minor (BWV 543). The restless, note-splattered music
steadily percolates, thickening its texture with
counterpoint derived from the main theme, modulating
through several keys, and never dissipating its energy
until the cadence of the final measures.
SHEET MUSIC