Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750. Chromatische Fantasie und Fuge

The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903, is a keyboard work by Johann Sebastian Bach. It consists of a fantasia followed by a three-voice fugue. The work is often dated to Bach's Köthen period (1717–1723), although its surviving sources indicate that it circulated in more than one form and was probably revised after Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723. The fantasia has a complex source history. It survives in three main versions: the early version BWV 903a or BWV 903.1, an intermediate version now numbered BWV 903.2, and the main version BWV 903 or BWV 903.3. The fugue has a simpler source history and differs only slightly among the surviving sources. The fantasia is organized through passagework, arpeggiation, chromatic voice leading, and recitative-like writing. Its main sections include an opening passagework section, an arpeggiated and modulatory passage, a recitative, and a coda over a tonic pedal point. The fugue is in three voices and develops a chromatic subject through eleven entries. Although the two movements differ in form, commentators have described continuities between them, especially in chromatic procedure, tonal instability, and keyboard figuration. The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue was admired by early writers on Bach, became prominent in nineteenth-century Bach performance and editing, and has been transcribed for several instruments.