Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532

[2] Many of his greatest and most well known organ works were written during this period, including, for example, the Prelude and Fugue in E major, BWV 566.

[6] Indeed, his fame on the instrument grew and he was visited by many students of the organ to hear him play and to try to learn from his technique.

[2] Thus it must have been written before Bach codified the clear two-section prelude and fugue form used in The Well-Tempered Clavier, which was composed in 1722.

The prelude commences with a semi-quaver scale from the pedals, and then the manuals begin with an intricate quaver pattern between the hands.

The subject of this fugue is eight measures long and consists of tight figurations encompassing the interval of a ninth.

After this progression we enter an episode with a flurry of figures on the dominant and then a full entry of the subject on the tonic that works to resolve the preceding tension so well that the eventual coda almost has the nature of an afterthought.

This work has been transcribed for solo piano by Ferruccio Busoni as BV B 20 in 1888, and by Eugen d'Albert in 1893 and for orchestra by Ottorino Respighi in 1929.