Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue in D minor (BWV 903) (Piano)

J S Bach Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue in D minor (BWV 903) (Piano)

The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903 is not only one of Johann Sebastian Bach's most familiar clavier works, it also occupies a unique position in his keyboard oeuvre.  As it was already popular in the eighteenth century its source traditions extend well beyond the confines of Germany: it has survived in no fewer than thirty-eight manuscripts, some thirty of which probably date from the eighteenth century.

The early and intermediate versions of the Fantasia can be clearly distinguished from each other and from the main version and can be edited relatively easily due to the paucity of sources.  Things become quite a bit different, however, when we turn to the main version.  Although the piece did not undergo any substantive changes, it has come down to us in several variants that reveal a progressive detachment from the readings of the two earlier versions.  In all likelihood Bach altered the piece and elaborated its details time and time again, perhaps during lessons.

As well as the main version BWV 903 our edition includes the early version BWV 903a, and the intermediate version after a manuscript prepared by Johann Tobias Krebs (1690-1762) which may well have originated during his years of study with Bach (1714-17).

- Urtext of the New Bach Edition

- Early version BWV 903a and intermediate versions included in an appendix

- Comprehensive preface (Ger/Eng)