Fugue in g minor, BWV 578, “Little”

Composer: BACH, Johann Sebastian
  • Bach composed this fugue in g minor for organ, BWV 578, before 1707.
    • It’s also known as “The Little g minor fugue” because there’s another G minor organ fugue that’s … bigger (“The Great,” BWV 542).
  • This fugue subject is purposefully catchy and “playful”: This type of theme is associated with a north German tradition musicologists call Spielthemen (sing. Spielthema), which means “fun to play,” “a playful subject:” literally “play-theme” or “game-theme.”
  • There are multiple extant early copies of this piece. This shows it was popular during and immediately after Bach’s lifetime. 1

Sources

  1. Peter Williams, The Organ Music of J.S. Bach, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 178-179.

Cut IDs

19277 22685 40668