The enormously rich keyboard output of J. S. Bach
includes (along with compositions of other genres) more
than sixty small polyphonic pairings, consisting of a
prelude or a fantasia and a fugue or fughetta. The
exclusion from this number of two or three cycles
because of misattribution would seem unlikely to have
much of an impact on the overall picture of Bach's
keyboard works, that is, it is unlikely to change
drastically how the output is to be viewed. Not so,
however, in the case of the Fant...(+)
The enormously rich keyboard output of J. S. Bach
includes (along with compositions of other genres) more
than sixty small polyphonic pairings, consisting of a
prelude or a fantasia and a fugue or fughetta. The
exclusion from this number of two or three cycles
because of misattribution would seem unlikely to have
much of an impact on the overall picture of Bach's
keyboard works, that is, it is unlikely to change
drastically how the output is to be viewed. Not so,
however, in the case of the Fantasia and Fughetta BWV
907 and Fantasia and Fughetta BWV 908. For many years,
these pieces, written down in traditional thoroughbass
notation, served as the only (therefore, very valuable)
evidence of Bath's treatment of the Italian
improvisation practice of pariimento.' For this reason,
the question of authorship for these two works is
relevant.
This Fantasia (from the Fantasia & Fugue in Bb Major)
was formerly attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach as BWV
907 and is now believed to be composed by Friedrich
Conrad Griepenkerl (1742-1849).
PARTITION