Secrets of Organ Playing Contest Week 144 Submission--Prelude in C major BWV 545 by J.S. Bach

Today's recording is of the Prelude from the Prelude and Fugue in C major. The work begins with a majestic and virtuosic pedal part of arpeggios that encompass the entire pedalboard. A series of chords is heard over this, beginning to immediately question the tonality of C major by introducing a b-flat in the first measure! After this opening three measures featuring the pedal, a motive is introduced in the manuals over a pedal point C. This motive is developed throughout a four-voice texture and modulates to the dominant where the main motive is reintroduced, now in the key of G major and over a pedal G. More development of the motivic material occurs before something that appears to be improvisatory and even cadenza-like before the virtuosity of the pedal work of the opening three measures returns to round off the piece.