Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532
Encyclopedia
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
Prelude and Fugue in D major (BWV 532) is a prelude
Prelude (music)
A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
and fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
written for the organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
in c.1710, and lasts for an approximate duration of 11½ minutes.
Composition
Like with most of Bach's organ compositions, this piece was written during his tenure in WeimarWeimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
between 1709 and 1717. Many of his greatest and most well known organ works were written during this period, including, for example, the Prelude and Fugue in E major, BWV 566
Prelude (Toccata) and fugue in E major, BWV 566
Prelude and Fugue in E major, BWV 566 is an organ work written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1708. It comprises four sections and is an earlywork of Bach's....
. The composer was residing in Weimar after being hired by the ruling duke of Weimar, Wilhelm Erst, in 1709 as an organist and member of the court orchestra; he was particularly encouraged to make use of his unique talents with the organ by the duke. Indeed, his fame on the instrument grew and he was visited by many students of the organ to hear him play and to try to learn from his technique. The Prelude and Fugue in D major was probably composed in 1710, although this is not certain. However, it was definitely written before Bach codified the clear two-section prelude and fugue in the form of what is used in the The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846-893
The Well-Tempered Clavier
The Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...
, which was composed in 1722. This is because BWV 532 features a lengthy, complex, self-contained fugue preceded by a multisectional prelude.
Description
The piece is in two sections: a prelude and a fugue. Both the sections are in D major but, to begin with, there is no tempo marking given on either section . Both pieces are in 4/4.The Prelude
The prelude commences with a semi-quaver scale from the pedals and then, the manuels begin with an intricate quaver pattern between the hands. Another run from the pedals is then followed by a continuation of from the right-hand. The quaver then repeates one octaveOctave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
lower. The pedals then play arpeggiated patters which begin a repeated theme and slow down throughout. This lasts for four bars. A sustained pedal then accompanies the manuels, who have a dotted quaver, semi-quaver rhythm. This then turns into a repeated G♯, B demi-semi-quaver rhythm. This then slows to a series of repeated candences.
A new phrase then begins with an ascending scale in the manuels leading up to a large D major chord. A new tempo is then introduced: Alla breve, and then a large phrase is introduced with a very polyphonic texture and a prominent tune. A section then starts withy chords played in the manuels and the quavers played in the pedals. This continues for another large period of time until the left hand takes the tune and the right hand plays the quavers.
When this section finishes, a new tempo of Adagio begins. A new theme then arrives with slow quaver on the lower manuel and pedal and ascending scales in the upper manuel. The prelude then concludes with a slow theme, on broken arpeggios and some slow, elongated final chords.
The Fugue
The subject of this fugue is eight measures long that consist of tight figurations encompassing an entire octave. Bach takes this subject firstly through the relative minor and then mediant minor, and then to the minor harmony of the leading tone and the major harmony on the supertonic. After this progression we enter an episode of with a flurry of figures on the dominant and then a full entry of the subject on the tonic that works to resolve the preceding tension so well that the eventual coda almost has the nature of an afterthought. This fugue, because of its interesting harmonic progressions, is one of the most interesting ever written by Bach.Transcriptions
This work has been transcribed for solo piano by Ferruccio BusoniFerruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
as BV B 20 in 1888, and by Eugen d'Albert
Eugen d'Albert
Eugen Francis Charles d'Albert was a Scottish-born German pianist and composer.Educated in Britain, d'Albert showed early musical talent and, at the age of seventeen, he won a scholarship to study in Austria...
in 1893.
See also
- List of compositions for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach
External links
- Free download of BWV 532 recorded by James KibbieJames KibbieJames Kibbie is an American concert organist, recording artist and pedagogue. He is Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan.- Biography :James Kibbie was born in 1949 in Vinton, Iowa, USA...
on the 1755 Gottfried SilbermannGottfried SilbermannGottfried Silbermann was an influential German constructor of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and fortepianos; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two.-Life:...
/Zacharias HildebrandtZacharias HildebrandtZacharias Hildebrandt was an organ builder, born in Münsterberg, Silesia. In 1714 his father, a cartwright master, apprenticed him to Gottfried Silbermann in Freiberg. In 1721 Hildebrandt finished his masterpiece, the organ of the Nikolaikirche Langhennersdorf...
organ in the Katholische HofkircheKatholische HofkircheThe Katholische Hofkirche is a Roman Catholic Cathedral, located in the 'Altstadt' in the heart of Dresden, in Germany. Previously the most important Catholic parish church of the city, it was elevated to cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dresden-Meissen in 1964.-Overview:The Hofkirche...
, Dresden, Germany