Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 is a piece of organ music written by Johann Sebastian Bach sometime around his years as court organist to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar (1708–1713). Extended footnote 1, with references in German.
Versions and sources According to David Schulenberg, the main sources for BWV 543 can be traced to the Berlin circle around Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Kirnberger. The copyist associated with C. P. E. Bach has only been identified as "Anonymous 303"; the manuscript is now housed in the Berlin State Library. Although less prolific than copyists like Johann Friedrich Agricola, from the many hand-copies circulated for purchase by Anon 303, including those from the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin recovered from Kyiv in 2001, commentators agree that the professional copyist must have enjoyed a close relationship with C. P. E. Bach. The other secondary source for BWV 543 came through the copyist Johann Gottfried Siebe and Kirnberger. The manuscript became part of the Amalienbibliothek, the music library of Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia; it is now in the Berlin State Library. There is an additional source from the copyist Joachim Andreas Dröbs whose score for BWV 543 formed part of a collection by Johann Christian Kittel, now in the Leipzig University Library. The sources for BWV 543a, which is presumed to be an earlier version of BWV 543 differing markedly from the prelude but identical to the fugue, originate in Leipzig. The main source was an unidentified copyist associated with Bach's pupil Johann Ludwig Krebs; the manuscript is now in the Berlin State Library. A secondary source is from the copyist Johann Peter Kellner, written around 1725 and also now in the Berlin State Library. An additional source is the score made by the copyist Michael Gotthardt Fischer; it is now stored in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University. Commentary "Anonymous 303" and his hand-copies of J.S. Bach's keyboard works
Prelude
There are two versions of the Prelude, both dating from the same period in Weimar (1708–1713). The versions of the fugue are identical, whereas the two versions of the prelude are distinct, the first version BWV 543/1a is shorter and presumed to be the earlier. The sources for BWV 543 are summarised in the section above. The differences between the two versions of the prelude are discussed in : the earlier version is 43 bars long, while the later version is 53 bars long. The main differences occur in bars 1–6 of BWV 543a/1 and bars 1–9 of 543/1 where the descending semiquaver broken-chord figures are altered and truncated. The same applies for the corresponding passages for bars 17–18 in BWV 543a/1 and bars 26–28 in BWV 543/1. In addition the triplet semiquavers in the later prelude are notated as demisemiquavers. As observes, "The more serious question concerning the opening passage of the prelude in its early and later versions is the fact that Bach changed his demisemiquavers to semiquavers [...] and in doing so preserved a calmer mood and a less rhapsodic feeling in the music; this change, however, does not and cannot mean that the early version is wrong or that the composer was mistaken. In the later version Bach was thinking on a larger scale and was considering the fugue and companion movement on a similarly large scale [...] The simplest way of extending the early prelude was to double the note values of the passages cited and thus make its flow more even." Introduction in German and English. Commentary in English, with "synoptic view" facility for split-screen viewing of BWV 543/1 and BWV 543a/1
Fugue The musicologist Peter Williams has pointed out that the catchy "lengthy sequential tail" of this fugue subject (its last 3 bars) "easily confuse[s] the ear about the beat" and is harmonically an exact "paraphrase" of the sequence in bars 6-8 of Vivaldi's double violin concerto Op. 3 No. 8 in A minor (RV 522, from L'estro armonico). Bach arranged this Vivaldi concerto as his solo organ "concerto" BWV 593, probably in 1714–16.
This 4-voice fugue BWV 543 has been compared to Bach's harpsichord Fugue in A minor, BWV 944, a 3-voice fugue that was probably written in 1708, and this organ fugue has even been called "the final incarnation" of BWV 944. (A similarity had been mentioned by Wolfgang Schmieder, editor of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis.) However, the idea of any close relationship (let alone a reincarnation) has been challenged. Williams writes that the fugue "has often been likened to the keyboard fugue BWV 944 [...] and claimed as some kind of version of it [but] the resemblances – contours of subject and countersubject, a perpetuum mobile element, a rather free close – are too slight" to support the comparisons. Williams also cites similarities "between the subject’s outline and that of the A minor Fugue BWV 559 from the Eight Short Preludes and Fugues, or between the pedal figures in both Preludes' closing stages [and] in the Prelude’s opening [right hand] figure, in a Corrente in Vivaldi’s Op. 2 No. 1, of 1709, and in a Fugue in E minor by Pachelbel." Aside from Williams' observations about the fugue subject, the fugues BWV 543 and 944 differ in their larger outlines: their harmonic structure and the series of expositions and episodes are not parallel.
Musical structure Prelude
Although Philipp Spitta has seen elements of northern traditions of the early Prelude BWV 543a/1 typical of the school of Buxtehude, has pointed out that the same features are also present in the later version BWV 543/1. These include solo passages at the start; semiquaver passages with hidden two- or three-part counterpoint in both the manuals and pedals; virtuosic demisemiquaver passages with trills leading to a cadence; and running semiquaver and demisemiquaver figures throughout, including at the start and in the coda. The traditional aspects are the semiquaver arpeggiated passage work with its "latent counterpoint" which incorporates a descending chromatic bass line. The semiquaver figures begin as a solo in the manual:
and then, after a lengthy demisemiquaver embellishment over a tonic pedal point, are heard again in the pedal. The highly embellished cadence that follows—full of manual runs over sustained pedal notes—leads into a contrapuntal exploration of the opening material in sequence; this is followed by a very free peroration. Features which distinguish Bach's writing from seventeenth-century compositions include its regular tempo throughout; the careful planning of climaxes; the well-judged changes from semiquavers, to semiquaver triplets and then demisemiquavers. After bars 36, there are semiquaver motifs in the manuals answered by similar motifs in the pedals: there are brisé effects similar to those found in chorale prelude BWV 599 or the Passacaglia, BWV 582/1; and pedal motifs similar to those found in the chorale prelude BWV 643. For both of these chorale preludes from the Orgelbüchlein, however, it is the systematic use of motifs that establish a particular musical mood. The Toccata-like Prelude in A minor—in the stylus phantasticus—bears the hallmarks of Bach's early, north German-influenced style, while the fugue could be considered a later product of Bach's maturity.
Fugue
The versions of the 4-part fugue for BWV 543a and BWV 543 are identical; it lasts 151 bars. The theme can be traced back to Bach's organ concerto in A minor BWV 593, transcribed for organ from Antonio Vivaldi's concerto for two violins, Op.3, No.8, RV 522, part of his collection L'estro armonico. The fugue can be broken up into sections as follows:
Bars 1–30. There is an exposition for each of the four parts, three in the manuals and one in the pedal, each lasting four and a half bars with a connecting half bar. The main subject starts with a head-motif which is curtailed by descending sequential arpeggiated figures. There is also a simultaneous countersubject in response to the new fugal entries. After the entries by the two higher voices, there is an episode in bars 11–14 as a codetta, heralding the first entry of the lower manual part. There is a similar six and a half bar codetta before the pedal entry sounds, but now the subject is off kilter, with the pedal entry starting on the off beat. Bars 31–50. There is a four and half bar episode, developing the exposition, with the 3 manual parts in the countersubject and busy arpeggiated sequences in the pedals. The lower manual part then remains silent, as new freely developed thematic material begins: first in parallel sixth semiquavers in the upper manuals accompanied by quaver motifs in the pedals; and then with briefly semiquaver motifs in the pedals before a three bar trio between the upper parts and pedal, leading to a hemiola with a cadence on the tonic A minor (thus, in the baroque musical style, two beats of time are replaced by three beats of time, ornamented on the last beat for the cadence). The highest part now sounds the fugal theme, with simple accompaniment from motifs in the other upper manual part and the pedal: their trio is truncated by a further hemiola with ornamental cadence. Bars 51–61. The lowest manual part enters in the dominant key, with a disguised version of the head-motif of the fugal theme. The pedal part remains silent, while, led by the lowest manual parts, the upper parts together play "circle of fifths": baroque musical sequences, with successions of harmonies that at each stage progress from dominant to tonic (or tonic to dominant). Bars 61–95. This passage, for keyboard alone, is a new restatement of the fugue theme in C major, the relative major. The manual entry is en taille, from the French "in the waist," a tenor voice often played on a tierce or cromorne organ stop. In this case the fugal entry plays between the highest and lowest parts on the manuals. There is then an episode involving circle of fifths; an answering entry on bar 71 in the highest part; a pedal point in the lowest manual part, above a circle of fifths episode; and finally, as the lowest part is silenced, a duet between the upper parts, with a further restatement of the fugal theme in the lower part followed by another circle of fifths episode. Bars 95–135. The first bars of this section involve a stretto passage: the pedal starts to play the fugue theme as usual, only to be taken up by the true fugue theme, off the beat and in the lowest manual part. Between bars 113 and 115, there is a further fugal entry in E minor in the middle manual part. Finally, at bar 131, there is the last fugal entry in the lowest manual part. After each of these fugal entries, episodes are freely developed over brief pedal points. In bars 132–134, the rising quaver scales in the pedals lead up to the final section. Bars 135–151. There is a pedal point for four bars, with the upper manual parts accompanying the arpeggio motifs in the lowest manual part; that is followed by solo arpeggio pedalwork for seven bars; then, in a virtuosic cadenza-like coda, the regular semidemiquaver passage-work in the highest part leads up to an emphatic closing cadence in the minor key.
The fugue is in time, unlike the prelude, which is in time. The fugue theme, like that of the prelude, is composed of arpeggiated chords and downward sequences, especially in its later half. Due to the sequential nature of the subject, the majority of the fugue is composed of sequences or cadences. The Fugue ends in one of Bach's most toccata-like, virtuosic cadenzas in the harmonic minor. Unlike most of Bach's minor-key keyboard works, it ends on a minor chord rather than a picardy third.
Reception and arrangements