Prelude and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 546 - J. S. Bach

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Recorded on the 1964 Walter Holtkamp organ at Plymouth Church (United Church of Christ), Shaker Heights, Ohio on 9/8/25.

Like many of Bach's preludes and fugues, BWV 546 was probably composed at two different points in his life, with the fugue written during the Weimar years and the fugue dating from his time in Leipzig. No autograph score survives; the oldest known copy is in the hand of Bach's friend Johann Peter Kellner.

The prelude, with its ritornello structure, is clearly the more mature movement. It begins with a towering homophonic theme that leads upward to Bach's well-known appoggiatura-driven “sighing” motif and finally gives way to a flurry of running triplets. A second theme is soon introduced that ascends and descends the first five notes of the C minor scale. The remainder of the prelude consists of the development of and interplay between these two themes.

There is speculation that the alla breve five-voice fugue may actually have been composed in whole or part by Kellner. The contrapuntal intricacy and overall structure of the fugue does seem authentic right down to the typical modulation to and statement of the subject in the subdominant key towards the end. However, the sudden disappearance of counterpoint in the episode leading to the recapitulation does suggest an interpolation.

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