Luogo e data di registrazione		Zwolle (Olanda) - marzo 1968 (LP 1) & ottobre 1967 (LP 2)
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Michael Bernstein
	Prima Edizione LP		- Valois - MB 845 · Vol. 5 - (1 LP) - durata 47' 02" - (p) 1968 - Analogico - Valois - MB 846 · Vol. 6 - (1 LP) - durata 38' 30" - (p) 1968 - Analogico
	"Das Orgelwerke" LP		Telefunken - BC 25100-T/1-2 - (2 LP's) - durata 47' 02" / 38' 30" - (p) 1968 - Analogico
	Note		-

Preludes and Fugues Toccata, fantasia, prelude and fugue are old forms of instrumental music, particularly piano and organ music, going back to the early 16th century; nevertheless it was left to Bach to give them that artistic shape in which they have since lived on as patterns. This applies especially to the prelude and fugue as well as to their combination into complementary dual movements. Their origins consist of two contrary principles of arrangement: Free ranging, homophony, virtuoso brilliance in the toccata, in the prelude related to it and the free fantasy; as opposed to this, strict thematic linking, polyphony, build-up of the work from imitative developments with regard to the fugue. The prelude and fugue were originally intended to test the tuning of the instrument, to give the other players or singers the key and to prepare the audience for the following performance. These introductory pieces were improvised and developed entirely according to the mode of play of the instrument: sustained chords alternated with fast runs and passage work. When musicians began to compose them properly and provide scoring, more strictly arranged, polyphonic sections were also soon incorporated. However, these pieces always retained something of the ranging character in the improvisation. The fugue on the other hand goes directly back to the vocal polvphony of the 16th century. Its preliminary forms, the ricercare and the instrumental canzona, were initially instrumental copies of the vocal motets and the French chanson. A good deal of its varying thematic process has been maintained in the Bach fugue subjects. Thus we have in the present selection, for instance, the organ fugues in D minor BWV 538 and F minor BWV 534, typical ricercare themes which are hardly able to deny their origins in the motet. The G minor fugue BWV 542 on the other hand has something of the rhythmic drive and song-like construction of the chanson. In the ricercare and in the canzona, just as in their vocal prototypes, imitative sections were joined on to one another with the appropriate new thematic material. The decisive move towards the fugue consisted of the thematic unification and broadening of the shape, no longer by merely setting out in a row, but by way of harmonic and contrapuntal methods, as well as by pithy intermezzos. This was introduced in the 17th century, but it was only Bach who finally consummated it. In this respect the wide-ranging modulation plan and the clear separation of developments and intermezzos are inconceivable without the example of the Italian solo concertos, which incidentally also played a contributory part in determining construction of many preludes. Finally it was also Bach who combined the basically different design forms of the prelude (toccata) and fugue into a firmly established dual movement. Bach began his music career at the age of 18 as organist. He discovered his own style in organ music, and it was for the organ that he created his earliest masterpieces. Fuller details of his artistic development, as recorded in his analysis of the traditionel forms of organ music, are contained in the notes with the fourth album of Bach’s organ works. The present third album contains ten of the large-scale preludes (toccatas, fantasias) and fugues arranged as dual movements, including some of the most famous. They cover a period between about 1708 and 1740. The homogeneity of the movement twosome in most cases emerges strikingly from their thematic relation. More important than this, however, is the inner mutual dependency of the two movements which no doubt can only be described more or less as the principle of tension and release. Toccata and Fugue D minor BWV 538 -- because of the absence of the B signature usual with the D minor, erroneously interpreted as church mode, and called the “Doric Toccata“ - is one of the early master works und was undoubtedly already composed in the initial Weimar years, between 1710 and 1714. The introductory toccata displays the influence of the Italian concerto movement, with its alternation from tutti to solo passages. Bach laid down to the last detail in this one case the manual change between swell-organ and positive. In this regard it is a sound and not a thematic change. The purpose is to keep alive and further consolidate the powerful semi-quaver motion which is maintained throughout the entire movement. In the same irrevocable manner the mighty, expressive fugue moves on towards its goal without any resting point. Its broadly based theme, with suspensions and syncopes, is counterpointed with two retained counterparts and frequently borne in close harmony. Prelude and Fugue C minor BWV 546 were not composed until Bach’s Leipzig period, and hardly before 1730. The stylistic further development is best recognized in the prelude, incorporating thematic abundance and concurrent fantasy into lucid construction, which again is based on a concerto movement. In this case ritornello and outer movement are also thematically clearly distinguished. The long, multilinked introductory ritornello, which is repeated at the end, develops by way of the three organ points of the tonic, dominant and subdominant, as the evolution from a brief thematic nucleus, the suspension motif. Then, in a grand harmonic curve, follow the outer movement and ritornello in a triple change, being shortened, modified and extended - a section of the outer movement is even worked into the penultimate ritornello. After this so rich and complex movement, the five-part fugue is especially effective because of the compelling power of its unusual subject. Its compact movement is loosened up with long minor part intermezzos. Prelude and Fugue G major BWV 541 is one of the few free organ works which have been passed on in Bach’s own handwriting, a fair copy from the 1740’s. The composition itself was most probably written 20 years earlier. The prelude opens with a long solo figure, establishing a ritornello-type tutti block which -- interrupted by short solo passages - continues in the same vein. Starting from rhythmical organ point D the conclusion is reached without a great deal of digression. It is a concise piece, of breath-taking joy. This jubilation carries on in the fugue. The introductory tone repetitions of its theme should not be construed in the sense of the hammering, knocking battaglia motifs of the North German organ school, but of joyful, inner vitality. Prelude and Fugue D minor BWV 539 were evidently not included in the complementary set sequence until the 19th century. The fugue is well-known as the 2nd movement of the violin solo sonata G minor, BWV 1001/2. The present transcription for the organ, an effective piece featuring strong chords, is more likely to have been by one of the sons or pupils of Bach than by himself. Supporting this theory are not only stylistic reasons, but also the tradition, which did not begin until the end of the 18th century. It is improbable that the modest prelude, to be played only on the manuals, belonged to it from the outset. According with contemporary performance practice, Michel Chapuis plays the continuous quavers of the prelude as “notes inégales“, i.e., in pointed rhythm. By way of such movements our attention is drawn to the arrangement techniques generally observed in Bach’s time and applied by Bach himself in a masterly fashion; they are never insignificant movements prepared for another instrument in this manner. Prelude and Fugue A minor BWV 543 no doubt already originate from the Weimar period, although their tradition does not begin until very much later. In two widely projecting passages, of a definite toccata-type shape, the prelude prepares the extensive fugue. The first is a figurative solo which intensifies by way of an organ point extending over 23 bars. The second, also starting as a figurative solo, completes this intensification with the aid of a more tightly-knit, chordic imitative movement. The fugue develops from a high-spirited theme in 6/8 time into a virtuoso piece with long intermezzos and a toccata-like conclusion. That the musical current in this movement largely consisting of sequences does not dry up is probably due, on the one hand, to the artistic theme whose pre-movement continually keeps alive the regular flow of motion by shifting the rhythmic points of emphasis, and on the other hand to the ingenious puzzle game carried on with deceptive developments emerging from the intermezzos. Prelude and Fugue C major BWV 545 belong to Bach’s Weimar period. The autograph, which still existed around 1900, has disappeared. A shorter version of the prelude shows that this toccata-type movement only received by the addition of three bars in front and behind that compulsive, balanced form in which it is still presented today. The fugue lives entirely from the force of its theme, stretching from triple onset of speech to the octave, the rear set of which simultaneously counterpoints the fore set in opposing motions. It is, however, more quickly ended than one would expect, precisely on account of this theme. Perhaps this is on account of the succeeding largo which in some instances is placed after the fugue and which otherwise we know as the centre movement of the 5th organ trio, BWV 529. Prelude and Fugue F minor BWV 534 has come down to us in only one copy from the early 19th century: evidence of how many coincidences the passing on of even highly significant works was dependent upon. The composition probably originates from the Weimar period. The two-part prelude is built up as continuation from the toccata-like semi-quaver figuration over the organ point. The fugue contains a good deal of chromaticism and cross-relations. Even its theme is dominated by the diminished seventh leap downwards. After the first extended and tightly-woven development part, intermezzos alternate with only brief thematic sections in order to enable the last theme onset in the bass and alto to come to the fore all the more effectively. There is only an early version of the Prelude and Fugue A major BWV 536 which apparently goes back to the Arnstadt period. Subsequently Bach considerably rearranged the prelude, and transposed the fugue from its original 3/8 time to 3/4; but apart from increasing the note values and shortening the conclusion by two bars he scarcely changed anything of the latter. The terse prelude develops in toccata style, initially with rising and descending triad figurations by way of organ points, then in imitative setting of this figuration. The fugue is concise but arranged with continually alternating counterpoint. Shortened inserts in the centre section give notice of the close melodic lead which heralds the concluding section. In the graceful song-like theme the rhythmic points of emphasis change from bar to bar, so that a peculiar hovering metre ensues. It is hardly likely that anybody would be able to detect the proper rhythm of the theme after hearing it only once. Fantasia and Fugue G minor BWV 542 are the boldest and technically most difficult pieces in the present selection. They have frequently been connected with Bach’s application for the organist’s post at the St Jakobi church in Hamburg in the year 1720; the fugue, the theme of which derives from a Dutch folk song, has been regarded as homage to the elderly Hamburg organist Jan Adams Reinken. However, at least the fantasia has been passed on in autographs from Bach’s Weimar period. Harmonically it is one of Bach’s most courageous pieces, and in this sense absolutely comparable to the “Chromatic Fantasia“. In the manner of the old toccata, figurative passages alternate with chordic and imitative. The fugue is not only arranged in virtuoso and concertante style, but is also constructed like a concerto movement, with the theme developments taking over the role of the tutti, and the intermezzos that of the solo. The two movements, fantasia and fugue, were handed down individually in numerous autographs and thus apparently not until some years after composition were combined by Bach into a dual movement. Fantasia and Fugue C minor BWV 537 again were handed down in only one manuscript, which, however, gives no indication as to the date of composition. The fantasia is related to the early Baroque fantasia, which as yet does not raise free-ranging concepts to a principle of form, but in the style of the motet and chanson joins imitative sections on to one another. Bach constructs from this a two-part reprise form. The fugue too keeps to the reprise form: its conclusion is a prolonged da capo of its exposition. The centre section is made independent by the introduction of fresh counterpoints. Bach frequently used this form of the “da capo fugue“ in his organ and lute fugues of the later Leipzig period. by Georg von Dadelsen English translation by Frederick A. Bishop * This critical and complete stylistic survey of Bach’s organ works is the third part and will be continued by further releases.
Johann Sebastian Bach - DAS ORGELWERK