Präludium und Fuge g-moll

Opus 11, No. 16

I must say, I am increasingly finding joy in composing new pieces for my well-tempered organ. Here we have a brief prelude and an exceedingly expansive fugue, originally intended for three voices, but towards the end, the pedal makes an appearance (and, as always, renders the piece unplayable).

G minor: Hector Berlioz described this key in his 1844 treatise on instrumentation as easily playable and characterised as "melancholic, fairly bright, gentle". Indeed, the prelude conforms to this description; a gentle melody flows along, and after a minute and a half, it concludes, making way for the grandiose fugue, which spans no less than 123 measures. I had Johann Sebastian Bach's G minor fugue, BWV 542, in mind; I wanted my fugue to have the same lively character. This character is accentuated by the use of an irregular meter. A special technique makes the piece extraordinarily vibrant. In the 6/8 meter, the first and fourth eighth notes are audible 75% of the time, while the other eighth notes are only audible 25% of the time. The sixteenth notes are fully audible at the beginning of each run, while the remaining notes are audible 50% of the time - that is the entire secret...

In the first part, the theme is introduced, and one by one, additional voices join in until all three voices have played the theme. This is followed by an inversion of the theme. Then, the theme is played backward. The coda concludes the work with the full organ.

We hear the magnificent Mascioni instrument from Giubiasco, which is, in any case, well-tempered. Enjoy No. 16, while I mentally prepare myself to move up by a half-step ;-)


P.S. This is the second attempt. Something went awry during the first upload; the piece was marred with significant interference noise...