The Prelude for Organ in C Major work was formerly
attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach as BWV 567.
Scholars now believe it was actually the work of Johann
Ludwig Krebs.
Johann Ludwig Krebs was a composer whose career spanned
the end of the Baroque and beginning of the Classical
era. In many respects, it typifies the problems many
musicians had in coping with the drastic change of
style this implies. Since he was an exceptionally
skilled writer of counterpoint, he might have ended up
wit...(+)
The Prelude for Organ in C Major work was formerly
attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach as BWV 567.
Scholars now believe it was actually the work of Johann
Ludwig Krebs.
Johann Ludwig Krebs was a composer whose career spanned
the end of the Baroque and beginning of the Classical
era. In many respects, it typifies the problems many
musicians had in coping with the drastic change of
style this implies. Since he was an exceptionally
skilled writer of counterpoint, he might have ended up
with considerably wider fame if he had been born 20
years earlier.
Krebs had a very high reputation among his
contemporaries. Bach held him in high regard, punning
on both their names ( Krebs [crab or crayfish] and Bach
[brook or stream]) by saying "He is the only crayfish
in my stream." It is not surprising that many of his
works, especially his organ compositions, are very much
like those of Bach. His harpsichord music is probably
what was best-known of his work in his own time,
published extensively, particularly in four volumes of
Clavier Ubung. Krebs also wrote significant quantities
of orchestral and choral music. His name and music
contributed to one of the most delicious inside jokes
in movie music history. To echo the on-screen motion of
the giant crab in the film Mysterious Island, with its
independently moving legs, Bernard Herrmann
orchestrated a cancrizan (i.e. crab-motion) fugue by
the "crab" composer, Krebs.
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