Fugue in C minor
BWV 575 performed by Erwin Wiersinga
Stiftskirche St. Georg, Goslar-Grauhof
Behind the music
Story
Story
Extra videos
Extra videos
Credits
Credits
Hot-headed extravagances
Over-enthusiastic and restless - a typical work by the young Bach
A remarkable theme, restless passage work and unambiguous in mood, yet with a striking ending – this must surely be one of Bach’s early works. In addition, the absence of an autograph (the earliest copies date back to Bach’s time in Leipzig) can also be viewed as extra evidence, as Bach often appears to have an aversion to his over-enthusiastic early work. With hindsight, he was probably rather embarrassed about his hot-headed extravagances and did not want to keep them for posterity. The term ‘flamboyant style’, used by his biographer Forkel to describe this type of organ work, shows that his contemporaries did not necessarily appreciate his adolescent work either.
Fortunately however, not all his colleagues were of the same opinion. Like his famous Toccata and fugue in D minor, BWV 565, this fugue was also copied assiduously. Incidentally, there are other similarities between the two works. Take, for instance, the theme that comes straight to the point and always ends with a mysterious, breathtaking rest, or that free, toccata-like atmosphere, shaped by a multitude of rushing semiquavers. Not to mention the surprising, deeply thundering intervention of the pedal at the end. Bach needed not one but three cadences to silence himself at the end. Point noted.
- BWV
- 575
- Title
- Fugue in C minor
- Instrument
- organ
- Genre
- organ works
- Year
- 1705-1717?
- City
- Arnstadt, Mühlhausen of Weimar?
- Special notes
- No autograph is known. Copies of this work date back to Leipzig at the earliest.
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
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- Release date
- 27 May 2016
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- Recording date
- 25 August 2015
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- Location
- Stiftskirche St. Georg, Goslar-Grauhof
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- Organist
- Erwin Wiersinga
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- Organ
- Christoph Treutmann, 1731
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- Film director and editor
- Onno van Ameijde
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- Camera
- Maarten van Rossem, Onno van Ameijde
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- Music production, editing and mix
- Holger Schlegel
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- Interview
- Onno van Ameijde
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- Producer
- Jessie Verbrugh
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