Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537

The Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537 is a piece for the organ written by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was composed during the composer's period of residence in Weimar.

History of Composition

During his life, Bach had two tenures in the small town of Weimar in present-day Germany. The town had a population of about 5000, but had a strong cultural tradition. He was hired in 1709 by Weimar's ruling duke, Wilhelm Ernst, as an organist and member of the court orchestra; he was particularly encouraged to make use of his unique talents with the organ. Indeed, during this time period he composed many of his greatest organ works, including the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 and the Prelude and Fugue in E major, BWV 566. During his period in Weimar his fame as an organist grew, and he was visited by students of the organ to hear him play and to try to learn from his technique. His Fantasia and Fugue in C minor was composed in the latter part of his tenure in Weimar, but we are not sure as to in which year though; many estimates also put the date of composition in 1723, when Bach was Kapellmeister in Köthen after falling foul of the political tensions that occurred in Weimar in 1717.

List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

There are over 1000 known compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. Nearly all of them are listed in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), which is the best known and most widely used catalogue of Bach's compositions.

Listing Bach's compositions

The earliest lists of Bach's compositions are given by his biographers, starting from his obituary which gives a list of instrumental works printed during the composer's lifetime (from Clavier-Übung I to The Art of Fugue), followed by a list which groups other types of compositions he wrote. The first separately published biography of the composer, by Johann Nikolaus Forkel, follows the same setup: its ninth chapter first lists printed works (adding four-part chorales that were published in the second half of the 18th century), followed by a rough overview of the unpublished ones. In the first half of the 19th century more works were published, so the next biographies (Schauer and Hilgenfeldt in 1850) had more elaborate appendices listing printed works, referring to these works by publisher, and the number or page number given to the works in these publications. So, for example, the Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major can be indicated as "C. F. Peters Vol. III No. 1", or any of the variants ("Griepenkerl and Roitzsch Vol. 3 p. 2", "Peters Book 242 p. 2", "P. S. V., Cah. 3 (242), No. 1", etc.)

Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist, BWV 45

Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist (It has been told to you, man, what is good),BWV 45, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the eighth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 11 August 1726.

History and words

Bach composed the cantata in Leipzig for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity. It is part of his third cantata cycle.

Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 5

Wo soll ich fliehen hin (Where shall I flee),BWV 5, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the 19th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 15 October 1724. It is based on a hymn of the same name by Johann Heermann.

History and words

Bach wrote the cantata in his second year in Leipzig for the 19th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 15 October 1724. It is part of his second annual cycle of cantatas, a cycle of chorale cantatas. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians – "put on the new man, which after God is created" (Ephesians 4:22–28) – and from the Gospel of Matthew, Healing the paralytic at Capernaum (Matthew 9:1–8).

The cantata text is based on the hymn in eleven stanzas "Wo soll ich fliehen hin" by Johann Heermann, published in 1630, which is recommended for the Sunday in the Dresdner Gesangbuch. An unknown poet kept the first and last stanzas as the respective cantata movements. He paraphrased the other stanzas rather freely: 2 and 3 as movement 2, 4 as movement 3, 5 to 7 as movement 4, 8 as movement 5, and 9 and 10 as movement 6. A year before, Bach had composed for the occasion Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen, BWV 48, concentrating on the promise of Jesus to the sick man: "Your sins are forgiven". Similarly, the awareness of being a sinner who needs healing is the theme of Heermann's chorale and this cantata. The poetry adds to the chorale images which the composer could use, for example in movement 3, the divine source of blood to cleanse the stains of sins, a Baroque phrase relying on Psalms 51:4, Revelation 1:5 and Revelation 7:14. In movement 5 the poet invented a ferocious, hellish army, which is silenced by the believer who shows the blood of Jesus.