page_title: Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 548
section_title: Fugue
hierarchical_section_title: Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 548 / Composition / Fugue
caption_attribution_description: English: Fugue subject of BWV 548
context_page_description: Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 548 is a piece of organ music written by Johann Sebastian Bach sometime between 1727 and 1736, during his time in Leipzig. The work is sometimes called "The Wedge" due to the chromatic outward motion of the fugue theme. Unlike most other organ preludes and fugues of Bach, the autograph fair copy of the score survives, though the handwriting changes twenty two measures into the fugue to the hand of Johann Peter Kellner, a likely pupil and acquaintance of Bach who played an important role in the copying of his manuscripts. Because of the work's immense scope, it has been referred to as "a two-movement symphony" for the organ.
context_section_description: The subtitle of the work, commonly referred to as "The Wedge", refers to the first half of the fugue subject, which opens up as a sort of widening, chromatic wedge around the tonic point. The tradition of descending chromatic fourths in Bach's e minor fugue subjects include the BWV 914 harpsichord Toccata, the BWV 855 Prelude and Fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1, as well as the "Un poco Allegro" movement from the BWV 528 Organ Sonata. The fugue, clocking at 231 measures, is among Bach's longest and most elaborate organ fugues. The movement is unique in that it is in a three-part structure, with the third da capo section being a note-for-note reprise of the first. The second section suddenly thrusts the piece into an over-one-hundred measure episode of rapid, toccata-like passages of great virtuosity, with the cascading passagework occasionally giving way to the subject.
caption: The fugue subject, in which the composition lends its name - "The Wedge"
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)"}