Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544 - J. S. Bach

[@johnbrauer2969]

Well done - your organ teacher made the right choice in green-lighting both movements!

[@grahamtwist]

A fabulous performance of both the Prelude and the Fugue, Deagan. Your hard work really paid off and it is a joy to hear you play this great work from the Master himself: B R A V O ! This is indeed one of the most original of the last great preludes and fugues from Bach's Leipzig years. The prelude, in an advanced and highly decorated Rococo style, combines grace and grandeur in an individual marriage between the older fugal techniques that Bach employed and the newer, more expressive harmony induced by the frequent appoggiature you mention. The fugue, which is particularly closely crafted around two subjects, achieves over and above the contrapuntal ingenuity an inevitability of growth and profundity of thought - remarkable even for Bach! And to further your gathering of information about BWV 544, there is every possibility that Bach played this impressive piece for the first time in St Paul’s Church in Leipzig. That is where, on 17 October 1727, the university held a memorial service for the recently departed Christiane Eberhardine der Starke, who was the Electress of Saxony and the Queen of Poland. For this occasion, Bach wrote ‘funeral music in Italian style’ and during the ceremony, he also played the organ himself. It is certain that he opened with a prelude and ended with a fugue . . . and although nobody can prove it (!), it seems highly likely that it was indeed this Prelude and Fugue. The music exudes the same atmosphere as the funeral music he composed, also written in the key of B minor. In Bach's lifetime, B minor was described as bizarre, listless and melancholy! And Bach used it frequently for stately and mournful occasions. The despair is almost tangible in the prelude, with its heartfelt lament, which is followed by great leaps in the pedal, repetitive and stubborn, as if you have to keep reminding yourself of what has happened! The whole piece seems to be filled with deep emotion. The fugue might be more logical or rational, although it is no less ingenious for that! Bach investigates every possibility of the singable theme, and on the way to the end, when the pedal returns after a long absence, he adds a second theme - once again with relatively large leaps - and so the piece works towards a more hopeful ending, signifying the promise of the resurrection.