Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

In December 1717, Bach left his position in Weimar to become Kapellmeister in Cöthen to Prince Leopold, a music-lover who encouraged him to write instrumental music. It was during these years, probably about 1720, that Bach composed his Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor. This is wild music-daring, powerful, expressive, brilliant. The chromatic freedom of his writing often dissolves any sense of a stable home key, and there are moments of dissonance that can still surprise the ear. Bach assumes that many decisions will be left to the performer. There are no tempo markings and few dynamic indications, and he leaves chords to be arpeggiated and resolved at the performer's discretion-this music can be a very different experience in the hands of each performer.

The term fantasy implies a freedom of form, and the opening section of the Chromatic Fantasy suggests the effect of improvisation, with its great swirls and free flights. After this opening flourish, Bach proceeds to a section he marks Recitative in the score: here the pulse feels slower, and the free flights of the opening give way to chords, trills, and complex rhythms that can suddenly erupt into the free manner of the opening.

The ending of this section is extraordinary: over a series of twelve descending-and quite dissonant-chords in the left hand, the right hand offers a fragmentary and subdued final statement before the section resolves firmly on a D-major chord. The Fugue returns to D minor, and Bach builds it on a long subject that rises sinuously and chromatically in its original statement. The fugue is in three voices, and textures remain quite clear-this fugue shows Bach the contrapuntalist at the height of his powers.