The Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537 is a piece for the organ written by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was composed during the composer's second period of residence in Weimar. [1] [2]
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The Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537 is a piece for the organ written by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was composed during the composer's second period of residence in Weimar. [1] [2]
During his life, Bach had two tenures in Weimar, then a town with a population of only about 5000, but possessing a strong cultural tradition. [3] His second tenure began in 1708, when he left a post as a church organist in Mühlhausen to serve as an organist in the chapel of Weimar's ruling duke, Wilhelm Ernst. [4] He composed many of his organ works at Weimar, including the Orgelbüchlein , concerto transcriptions, and some fugues, although in the case of Bach's fugues it is often difficult to identify when they were composed. [2] [5]
The combined length of the fantasia and the fugue is about eight minutes; [6] the fantasia is written in 6/4 time, while the fugue is in 2/2. The fantasia of the piece is quite lush and very ornate, consisting of two unequal halves that both feature the same two basic musical ideas, an imitative dotted-rhythm tune, and a leaping eighth-note form, which is also in imitation, initiated by the pedals. [1] Unlike many of its contemporaries, it features no cadenza-like passage in which performers could show off their virtuosity. The fugue uses a steady theme four times in a row that can be easily recognised each time that it reappears. The total length of the fugue is 130 contrapuntal bars. [7]
During his period in Weimar his fame as an organist grew, and he was visited by students of the organ to hear him play and to try to learn from his technique. [3]
The piece appeared in 1867 in the first complete edition of the composer's works, the Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe. The volume in question was devoted to organ music and edited by Wilhelm Rust.
This piece was transcribed by Edward Elgar. He had a cordial friendship with Richard Strauss dating back to the German premiere of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in Düsseldorf in 1901. They met in 1920, eager to heal the rift caused by the First World War. At the meeting, Elgar proposed that they orchestrate this work by Bach. Strauss would orchestrate the Fantasia and Elgar would work on the Fugue. Elgar completed his section in the spring of 1921, but Strauss never kept his part of the agreement. Elgar proceeded to orchestrate the Fantasia as well, and the final combined orchestration was first performed in the 1922 Three Choirs Festival, being held in Gloucester; the rendition was well received. [8]
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was a German composer and musician. He was the second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. Despite his acknowledged genius as an organist, improviser and composer, his income and employment were unstable, and he died in poverty.
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece of organ music written, according to its oldest extant sources, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). The piece opens with a toccata section, followed by a fugue that ends in a coda. Scholars differ as to when it was composed. It could have been as early as c. 1704. Alternatively, a date as late as the 1750s has been suggested. To a large extent, the piece conforms to the characteristics deemed typical of the north German organ school of the Baroque era with divergent stylistic influences, such as south German characteristics.
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The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538, is an organ piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Like the better-known BWV 565, BWV 538 also bears the title Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, although it is often referred to by the nickname Dorian – a reference to the fact that the piece is written without a key signature – a notation that leads one to assume the Dorian mode.
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Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schubler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.
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The Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542, is an organ prelude and fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach. It acquired that name to distinguish it from the earlier Little Fugue in G minor, which is shorter. This piece is not to be confused with the Prelude and Fugue in A minor, which is also for organ and also sometimes called "the Great".
The Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 562 is a relatively short piece written for the organ by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach began the composition during his time in Weimar, and an unfinished fugue, probably by Bach, was added in his later life. The piece features a heavily appoggiatura-laden harmony.
Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532.2, is a prelude and fugue written for the organ c. 1710, and has an approximate duration of 11+1⁄2 minutes. BWV 532.1 is an earlier version of the Fugue.
The Clavier-Übung III, sometimes referred to as the German Organ Mass, is a collection of compositions for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach, started in 1735–36 and published in 1739. It is considered Bach's most significant and extensive work for organ, containing some of his most musically complex and technically demanding compositions for that instrument.
The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903, is a work for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach probably composed it during his time in Köthen from 1717 to 1723. The piece was already regarded as a unique masterpiece during his lifetime. It is now often played on piano.
The organ concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach are solo works for organ, transcribed and reworked from instrumental concertos originally composed by Antonio Vivaldi and the musically talented Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar. While there is no doubt about the authenticity of BWV 592–596, the sixth concerto BWV 597 is now probably considered to be spurious. Composed during Bach's second period at the court in Weimar (1708–1717), the concertos can be dated more precisely to 1713–1714.
The Fantasia or Pièce d'Orgue in G major, BWV 572, is a composition for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach.
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Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 906, is a keyboard piece, likely unfinished, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach sometime during his tenure in Leipzig (1723–1750). The work survives in two autograph scores, one with the fantasia alone, and the other, believed to have been penned around 1738 in which the fugue is incomplete. The piece is notable for being one of Bach's latest compositions in the prelude and fugue format, and for being a showcase of Bach trying his hand at the emerging galant and empfindsam styles of music that his sons were known to compose.
