When one contemplates Johann Sebastian Bach and his
role in the development of the prelude and fugue, one
naturally thinks of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the
famous collection in which he explored the
possibilities of prelude and fugue writing in an
encompassing, encyclopedic way. But the Well-Tempered
Clavier represents Bach’s summary of a genre that he
codified and refined at an earlier point in his life,
in a series of adventurous and increasingly ambitious
organ works. These works first eme...(+)
When one contemplates Johann Sebastian Bach and his
role in the development of the prelude and fugue, one
naturally thinks of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the
famous collection in which he explored the
possibilities of prelude and fugue writing in an
encompassing, encyclopedic way. But the Well-Tempered
Clavier represents Bach’s summary of a genre that he
codified and refined at an earlier point in his life,
in a series of adventurous and increasingly ambitious
organ works. These works first emerged during his
youthful years as a church organist in Arnstadt
(1703-1707) and Mühlhausen (1707-1708) and then
reached an extraordinary peak of sophistication and
virtuosity during his tenure as court organist in
Weimar (1708-1717), where the pleasure that the
reigning duke took in his playing “fired him with the
desire to try every possible artistry in his treatment
of the organ,” as his obituary later put it.
The Prelude and Fugue in D Minor (“Fiddle”), BWV
539, dates from shortly after Bach’s Weimar
stay—either from his tenure as court chapel master in
Cöthen (1717-1723) or from his initial years as Cantor
of the St. Thomas School in Leipzig (1723-1750). The
Fugue is a keyboard transcription of the second
movement of the Sonata in G Minor for Unaccompanied
Violin, BWV 1001, a work completed in 1720. Bach also
arranged the Fugue for lute (BWV 1000), and one can
certainly understand why he returned to the music
several times: based on a crisp, incisive Vivaldi-like
theme, it has a relentless forward movement that makes
it immensely compelling. The Fugue concludes with a
short cadenza in a free style—a remnant of its violin
origins.
PARTITION