Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articlesavailable from Wikipedia or other free sources online. 'The Great'Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 (an alternate version is numberedBWV 543a) is a piece of organ music written by Johann Sebastian Bachsometime around his years as court organist to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar(1708-1717). It is the final incarnation of Bach's harpsichord Fugue inA minor, BWV 944, written in 1708. This piece should not be confusedwith the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, which is also called 'theGreat.' The Prelude starts out with a long introduction, introducing thechromatic, almost descending subject, then goes off into a flurry ofintricate arpeggios over a long pedal point. The build up is theninterrupted by a virtuoso run in the harmonic minor, then a grindingtremolo of a mix of the b diminished chord, and the c augmented chord. Astop and go pattern of chromatic runs, downward arpeggios, and pedalsolos based on the opening sequence ensue.