Fantasia a minor BWV 561

There are three questions about this piece:
– is it for organ
– does it include a pedal part
– who wrote it (there is no autograph by Bach)

A common view is, that it comes early in Bach's output and is written for the pedal harpsichord.
That was the common instrument for practice in Bach's days.
Another view is, that the composer who wrote it (Kittel perhaps) knew Bach's prel&fug; in a-minor BWV 543.
For Kittel the movement from semiquavers to demisemiquavers is typical.
It has also been attributed to W.F. Bach, but that claim is also uncertain.
Like many works by Pachelbel, there are quick arpeggio's en scales up and down above a held tone in the pedal to demonstrate the players abilities.
So there is no proof who wrote this piece and it has therefore been somewhat neglected.

The intention of the piece is simple: prelude – fugue – postlude.
The prelude and postlude show, that the composer must have been familiar with north German figures.
It seems, that the composer is working traditional keyboard ideas into a more modern form: for instance the bar just before the fugue is not typical for the Buxtehude period.
The fugue, though a fine theme, leans heavily on figures of an older type.

(Part excerpts from: the organ music of J.S. Bach by Peter Williams (1980).