Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542

Manuscript#

No autograph manuscript of either the Fantasia or the Fugue survives, and no manuscript of the Fantasia survives from the composer’s lifetime. It is not clear whether the practice of coupling the Fantasia with the Fugue derives from the composer himself. William H. Bates writes: There are many variant textual readings in the manuscripts, perhaps most prominently in the final chord of the Fantasia, which is recorded as both G major and G minor. Some manuscripts preserve the fugue in the key of F minor rather than G minor; this transposition was probably performed in order to make the fugue playable on an organ whose pedals lacked a high D, and may well have been approved or even carried out by the composer himself.

Arrangements#

The work was transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt as S.463. Modern arrangers such as Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Karl Munchinger have orchestrated the work.

Bibliography#

• • Pieter Dirksen, J.S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fuga in G Minor, The Organ Yearbook 45 (2016), 133–167.

External links#

• Video recording of the Fantasia in G minor (BWV 542) performed by Robert Pecksmith on the 1969 Grant, Degens and Bradbeer organ of New College Chapel, Oxford
• Free download of BWV 542 recorded by James Kibbie on the 1736 Erasmus Bielfeldt organ in St. Wilhadi, Stade, Germany
• Score of “Ik ben gegroet van…”