I already covered this piece four years ago. It’s so grand that I decided to do it again with a musical analysis and a different solist and transcription.
The Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 is likely the greatest work in Johann Sebastian Bach’s organ repertoire and therefore the greatest work for the organ by any composer. Most scholars date it to Bach’s early career – probably between 1706 and 1713, when he was absorbing the North German organ tradition and studying the music of composers such as Dietrich Buxtehude. Over time the work became one of Bach’s most admired organ compositions. Robert Schumann famously praised the variations as being “intertwined so ingeniously that one can never cease to be amazed.”
A passacaglia is a baroque musical form featuring continuous variations over a repeating bass line (basso ostinato), usually in a slow, stately triple meter. Bach’s great passacaglia begins with an eight-measure ostinato bass theme, stated alone in the pedals. This bass line is the generative element of the entire movement. The passacaglia unfolds in a sequence of variations over this repeating bass, each intensifying the contrapuntal complexity, while the harmonic center remains C minor.
The variations gradually build from relatively simple textures to towering contrapuntal structures. Some highlight manual figuration, others emphasize dialogue between manuals and pedals, while several introduce elaborate contrapuntal overlays above the bass.
Having reached an unequaled artistic level in the passacaglia, the listener might think the fugue could not gain the same height. Yet Bach achieves a miraculous connection between the two movements. The fugue subject derives directly from the passacaglia theme. In fact, the first half of the ostinato bass becomes the main subject of the fugue, while material from the second half contributes to the countersubject. This thematic relationship means that the fugue does not merely follow the passacaglia – it grows organically from it.
The fugue is large and symphonic in scope. It begins with a traditional exposition in several voices but soon expands into elaborate contrapuntal combinations. The work resembles a permutation fugue, in which multiple subjects and countersubjects appear in changing combinations.
Rather than presenting clearly separated episodes, Bach develops the fugue through a continuous flow of contrapuntal transformations and modulations. The final section builds toward a grand cadence, culminating in a brilliant Picardy third (a musical technique where a piece in a minor key unexpectedly ends on a major tonic chord) a triumphant shift from C minor to C major. The effect is overwhelming: the architecture of the passacaglia finds its culmination in the intellectual and emotional power of the fugue.
The great organ work is presented below. It is played by organist Hans-André Stamm on the Trost-Organ in Waltershausen, Germany
The piece is so powerful that it has inspired numerous orchestral transcriptions. Some are straightforward orchestrations; others radically reinterpret the music through orchestral color. Leopold Stokowski’s transcription is the most famous orchestral version. Other transcriptions have been made by Ottorino Respighi, René Leibowitz, Eugene Ormandy, Sir Andrew Davis, and Tomasz Golka. Stokowski’s version is below conducted by himself.
