page_title: Organ Sonatas (Bach)
section_title: Genesis of collection
hierarchical_section_title: Organ Sonatas (Bach) / Origins and purpose / Genesis of collection
caption_attribution_description: Nekrolog of Johann Sebastian Bach, Page 158 of Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek, Vol IV, high resolution
context_page_description: The organ sonatas, BWV 525–530 by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six sonatas in trio sonata form. Each of the sonatas has three movements, with three independent parts in the two manuals and obbligato pedal. The collection was put together in Leipzig in the late 1720s and contained reworkings of prior compositions by Bach from earlier cantatas, organ works and chamber music as well as some newly composed movements. The sixth sonata, BWV 530, is the only one for which all three movements were specially composed for the collection. When played on an organ, the second manual part is often played an octave lower on the keyboard with appropriate registration. Commentators have suggested that the collection might partly have been intended for private study to perfect organ technique, some pointing out that its compass allows it to be played on a pedal clavichord. The collection of sonatas is generally regarded as one of Bach's masterpieces for organ. The sonatas are also considered to be amongst his most difficult compositions for the instrument.
context_section_description: From the two main sources, from Bach's knowledge of works by other composers and from his own compositions for organ and instrumental ensemble that predate the collection, it is possible to gain a partial idea of how the collection was put together and how the genre of the Bach organ trio evolved.
  Some of the movements had precursors either as organ works or chamber works: only the last sonata BWV 530 had all its movements newly composed. The only other movements that are known with certainty to have been newly composed are the slow movement of BWV 525 and the first movement of BWV 529; the last movement of BWV 529 probably also falls into this category but might be a transcription of a lost instrumental trio sonata from Bach's periods in Cöthen and Weimar. Although Hans Eppstein has suggested that several movements might be transcriptions of lost chamber works, the writing for organ is often so idiosyncratic that his hypothesis can apply to at most a few movements. 
  There are six movements known with reasonable certainty to date from earlier compositions.
  Four movements have previous versions as organ compositions:
  the first movement of BWV 525;
  the first movement of BWV 527;
  the slow movement of BWV 528;
  the slow movement of BWV 529.
  Two movements are known to be transcriptions of instrumental trios:
  The slow movement of the BWV 527 is a reworking of a lost instrumental work which was also re-used later in the slow movement of the triple concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord, BWV 1044. This arrangement has been ascribed to the period 1729–1740 when Bach was director of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig, an association of town musicians that mounted concerts in the Café Zimmermann.
  The first movement of BWV 528 is a transcription of the sinfonia that begins the second part of the cantata Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76, scored for oboe d'amore, viola da gamba and continuo. Bach (2013), designated BWV 528a, is a reconstruction of an entire trio sonata for the same combination of instruments using the remaining two movements. The lost work is thought to date to Bach's period in Weimar. Pieter Dirksen's edition allows the performers a choice of three possible keys: G minor; E minor; or a mixture of the two.
  Some individual movements were associated with other organ works of Bach: the earlier version of the slow movement of BWV 529—the most elaborate and skilfully written of the slow movements—was paired with the Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 545; and the last movement of BWV 528 was paired with the Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541. It is now thought that these pairings originated in Bach's Leipzig period. One problem in deciding on how the collection came about is that many instrumental works on which the organ sonatas might have been based have been lost. Such chamber works are mentioned by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in his 1754 Nekrolog and many are thought to have been composed in Cöthen. Wolff (1994) has suggested this might reflect the fact that, after Bach's death, his vocal works passed to Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel who guaranteed their survival; while the chamber works, very few of which survive, were mostly inherited by Bach's younger sons Johann Christian Bach and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach.
  Corrections in the autograph manuscript and a detailed analysis of stylistic elements in the sonatas have led Breig (1999) to suggest that the sonatas were composed in their final state in two distinct groups. The first group, consisting of the first, third and fourth sonatas, has first and last movements which have a fugal character and as close stylistic relation. The second group, consisting of the second, fifth and sixth sonatas where the bulk of composing corrections occur have a concerto-like form, with contrasting tutti and concertato sections in the opening movements and fugal final movements. Even in the second "fair copy" produced by Wilhelm Friedemann and Anna Magdalena, Bach made corrections in three movements (in the first, fifth and sixth sonatas).
caption: First page of Bach's Nekrolog in Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek, 1754
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