Fantasia & Fugue in C minor, BWV 537 - J.S. Bach - Organist Charles Burks - "Sonnenorgel" Görlitz DE

Fantasia & Fugue in C minor (BWV 537) by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). This is the sixth video in my series of Bach's Great Organ Works from A to G. Please subscribe and hit the bell button to be notified whenever a new video is released.

Prelude: 0:05
Fugue: 5:23

Performed in May, 2024 by Charles Burks on the 1997/2006 Mathis "Sonnenorgel" of St. Peter and Paul in Görlitz, Germany using Hauptwerk technology. Pipe organ sampleset recorded by Sonus Paradisi.
www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/germany/goerlitz-sonnenorgel.html

NOTES:

The Fantasia that precedes the Fugue in C minor is a lamento pur sang. The rarefied notes floating high up seem to be lamenting some tragic loss or other. The sense of desolation is further reinforced by the dispirited, deep droning of the organ notes in the far distance. The lamento mood does not lessen on the introduction of the second theme, as now the notes start to descend breathlessly still further in pairs. Even after an extensive repetition of the two themes, we are still not done with the misery, as it closes with a question.

It is hard to imagine a greater contrast with the fugue that follows. Still in mournful mood from the fantasia, you suddenly plunge into an extremely energetic first theme of the fugue. This is powerful music, which is reaffirmed by the second theme. The motto here is Higher! Higher! Louder! Louder! The notes are crammed together more and more by the increasing chromatics, which along with generous help from the pedal gives them the drive of a crowd feverishly searching for the exit. Like a sort of encore, the opening returns almost literally, so that Bach finally appears to choose for vigorous action after all – although he does end in a minor key.

No autograph of this undated work has survived and the only copy of it was also nearly lost after the death of Bach’s pupil Krebs in 1780, when a big roll of manuscripts was nearly thrown away as old paper. We do not know who saved the piece for posterity, but anyway the energy it displays is a tribute to composition itself.

Notes courtesy of Netherlands Bach Society: https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/...