Prelude and Fugue in D Major - J.S. Bach
As some of you may recall, I've been treating our Madrigal Mondays rather loosely in two dimensions: Sometimes they are not madrigals, but rather some other form of secular music; and sometimes they don't appear on Mondays. I'm checking both boxes this week: Today is Tuesday, and our piece is most definitely not a madrigal.
But is it ever fabulous! If this doesn't make you happy, or at least put a smile on your face, I'm not sure what will.
It's Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D Major (BWV 532). I first came upon it in a recital recording by the blind organist Helmut Walcha, and was absolutely entranced and elated--just about fell out of my chair. The Prelude begins and ends in toccata-like fashion with lots of runs and crunchy chords, Bach seemingly improvising, perhaps putting a new organ through its paces. The entire middle of the Prelude--bars 16-96--is taken up with an extended development of a triumphant little theme, which rapidly becomes a perpetual-motion exploration, moving to different keys through texture changes and other transmogrifications, until is screeches to a halt (almost literally) to give way to the closing toccata section.
And then comes the Fugue. It has the sassiest subject ever heard--a mischievous swirl of three notes, followed by a sequential 16th-note motive which wends its way down the scale to a closing cadence. As is the usual case with fugues, a second appearance of the subject ensues (now on the dominant), greeted by an irreverent deedle-deedle-deedle-deet motive, thumbing its nose at life and its vagaries. And so the chase begins, with counter-subjects piled upon subjects, modulations galore, and an overall sensation of utter joy and gladness in just being here, awake, alive, alert, joyous and enthuuusiastic.
You just gotta check it out Here's a link to Walcha's rendition of the Prelude, and another one to the Fugue.
But the pièce de résistance this morning is this amazing performance--from memory--by the organist Monica Czausz, playing the Fritz Noack Opus 128 Bach Organ at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston. Her playing is nothing short of incredible. The split-screen format which kicks in now and then just adds to the excitement, and by no means miss her thrilling execution of the unbelievable bass run just before the end.
Spectacular!
An excellent score is attached for your musico-literary pleasure.
As some of you may recall, I've been treating our Madrigal Mondays rather loosely in two dimensions: Sometimes they are not madrigals, but rather some other form of secular music; and sometimes they don't appear on Mondays. I'm checking both boxes this week: Today is Tuesday, and our piece is most definitely not a madrigal.
But is it ever fabulous! If this doesn't make you happy, or at least put a smile on your face, I'm not sure what will.
It's Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D Major (BWV 532). I first came upon it in a recital recording by the blind organist Helmut Walcha, and was absolutely entranced and elated--just about fell out of my chair. The Prelude begins and ends in toccata-like fashion with lots of runs and crunchy chords, Bach seemingly improvising, perhaps putting a new organ through its paces. The entire middle of the Prelude--bars 16-96--is taken up with an extended development of a triumphant little theme, which rapidly becomes a perpetual-motion exploration, moving to different keys through texture changes and other transmogrifications, until is screeches to a halt (almost literally) to give way to the closing toccata section.
And then comes the Fugue. It has the sassiest subject ever heard--a mischievous swirl of three notes, followed by a sequential 16th-note motive which wends its way down the scale to a closing cadence. As is the usual case with fugues, a second appearance of the subject ensues (now on the dominant), greeted by an irreverent deedle-deedle-deedle-deet motive, thumbing its nose at life and its vagaries. And so the chase begins, with counter-subjects piled upon subjects, modulations galore, and an overall sensation of utter joy and gladness in just being here, awake, alive, alert, joyous and enthuuusiastic.
You just gotta check it out Here's a link to Walcha's rendition of the Prelude, and another one to the Fugue.
But the pièce de résistance this morning is this amazing performance--from memory--by the organist Monica Czausz, playing the Fritz Noack Opus 128 Bach Organ at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston. Her playing is nothing short of incredible. The split-screen format which kicks in now and then just adds to the excitement, and by no means miss her thrilling execution of the unbelievable bass run just before the end.
Spectacular!
An excellent score is attached for your musico-literary pleasure.