| Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue | |
|---|---|
BWV 903 | |
| byJ. S. Bach | |
 The Bach Harpsichord in theBerlin Musical Instrument Museum | |
| Key | D minor |
| Composed | c. 1720 |
| Movements | |
| Scoring | Harpsichord |
TheChromatic Fantasia and Fugue inD minor,BWV 903, is a work forharpsichord byJohann Sebastian Bach. Bach probably composed it during his time inKöthen from 1717 to 1723. The piece was already regarded as a unique masterpiece during his lifetime. It is now often played on the piano.
An autograph of this work is not known. The musicologistWalther Siegmund-Schultze pinpoints the work to the "fermenting Köthen works" because of its improvisatory and expressive nature, using all keys.[1]
More than 30 different manuscript copies of the piece survive from the 18th and early 19th centuries. The earliest extant copy of thefantasia dates from before 1735, written by an unknown scribe - this is catalogued separately as BWV-903a. The earliest fully-developed version of the fantasia was written by Bach's pupilJohann Tobias Krebs, likely created while Krebs was studying under Bach in Weimar (1714–1717).[2] Two other versions emerged around 1730 that include thefugue; these were possibly written byGottfried Grünewald orChristoph Graupner.[citation needed] A manuscript of the double work comes fromJohann Friedrich Agricola and was written between 1738 and 1741.[3]
A complete copy byJohann Nikolaus Forkel (c. 1775) formed the basis of the first printed editions of the piece byFranz Anton Hoffmeister (1802) andFriedrich Konrad Griepenkerl (1820).[4]
Because of significant differences in details, which can not be traced back to a common basic shape, it is assumed that Bach himself composed the various different versions of the work that are in circulation.[5]
The fantasy contains a great deal of harmonic movement bysemitones, and the fugue theme is very chromatic (although not uniquely so for Bach), explaining the piece's nicknameChromatic.
Thechromatic fantasia begins as atoccata with fast, up and down surging runs in thirty-second notes (demisemiquavers) and broken chords in sixteenth-note (semiquaver) triplets, which are often diminished seventh chords lined up in semitones. The second part is a series of very clear and remotely modulating soft leading chords that are written in the oldest copies as "Arpeggio", i.e. they require a spread chord. The third part is entitledRecitative and includes a variety of ornamented, enriched, highly expressive melodies. This part contains severalenharmonic equivalents.[6] The recitative finishes with passages that are chromatically sinking diminishedseventh chords over above thepedal point on D.
The theme of thefugue begins with an upward chromatic line from the fifth of D minor to the seventh, moving from A to C. The following phrase emphasizes D minor.
Then the tonal answer, the second voice, appropriately begins on D, moving through a sequence that takes D minor and changes it to D major, leading us towards G minor then back through A major (dominant) to D minor.
To sum up, first voice harmonies can be hear as D minor, A minor, D major, G minor, then back to tonic via A major, D minor.The harmonies of the second voice (tonal answer) may be heard as D minor G minor G major A major D minor.
The virtuosic and improvisational toccata style of the fantasy, in which both hands alternate rapidly, and the expressive, tonally experimental youthful character, combined with the cogent structure of Bach's more mature period, make the work exceptional, and it has been particularly popular among Bach's keyboard works. This assessment was shared by Bach's contemporaries. The first biographer of Bach,Johann Nikolaus Forkel, wrote: "I have expended much effort to find another piece of this type by Bach. But it was in vain. This fantasy is unique and has always been second to none."[1]
19th-century interpretations of the piece are exemplars of theromantic approach to Bach's works taken during that period.Felix Mendelssohn, the founder of the Bach revival, played this fantasy in February 1840 and 1841 in a series of concerts at the LeipzigGewandhaus and delighted the audience. He attributed this effect to the free interpretation of the fantasy's arpeggios. He used the sound effects of the era's grand piano through differentiated dynamics, accentuating high notes and doubling pedal bass notes. This interpretation became the model for the adagio of Mendelssohn'ssecond sonata for cello and Piano (Op. 58), written from 1841 to 1843. This work gives the top notes of the piano arpeggios a chorale melody while the cello plays an extended recitative resembling that of the Chromatic Fantasia and quotes its final passage.[7]
This romantic interpretation was formative; many famous pianists and composers, includingFranz Liszt andJohannes Brahms, used the work as a demonstration of virtuosity and expressiveness in their concert repertoire. It was reprinted in many editions with interpretive notes and scale instructions.Max Reger reworked the piece for the organ. Even since the rise of thehistorically informed performance movement, it remains one of the most popular keyboard works by Bach.[1]
There are romantic interpretations byEdwin Fischer,Wilhelm Kempff,Samuil Feinberg andAlfred Brendel on the grand piano, and byWanda Landowska on the harpsichord. A non-romantic interpretation with surprising accents and without pedalling was presented byGlenn Gould and influenced more recent pianists such asAndrás Schiff andAlexis Weissenberg. The pianistAgi Jambor combined romantic sonorities and colors with clear voice guidance and emphasized the work's structural relations. Around 1944,Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji composed a virtuosic paraphrase of the fantasy as the 99th of his100 Transcendental Studies.[8]
The work wastranscribed for soloviola byZoltán Kodály in 1950.[9] There is a transcription forclassical guitar by Philip Hii,[10] andBusoni made two transcriptions for both solopiano andcello and piano, which are catalogued asBV B 31 and 38, respectively.Jaco Pastorius played the opening parts onelectric bass on his 1981 albumWord of Mouth. A transcription for solo cello was made by cellistJohann Sebastian Paetsch in 2015 and published by theHofmeister Musikverlag in Leipzig.[11] A transcription for soloclarinet of the fantasy was done byStanley Hasty, professor emeritus of University of Rochester'sEastman School of Music, in 2002.[12] A transcription of the Chromatic Fantasia for solo B♭ clarinet, and fugue in D minor for 3 clarinets (two B♭ clarinets and B♭ bass clarinet) was made by clarinetistRichard Stoltzman in 2011 and published by Lauren Keiser Music.
Urtext edition
Musical analysis
