The Fantasia and Fugue in A minor, BWV 944 – performed here by harpsichordist Emmanuel Frankenberg for All of Bach – is an example of a work in which Bach leaves scope for the musician. Right from the start in the prelude – in this case a fantasia – only the chords are written out, with the annotation ‘arpeggio’ [a broken chord]. Here, Bach has set the harmonic progression, but the keyboard player has to make their own choices about the sort of arpeggio, the tempo and other improvisations on the series of chords.

For more information on BWV 944 and credits of this production go to https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/...

Recorded for the project All of Bach on December 7th 2021 at Broedergemeente in Zeist. If you want to help us complete All of Bach, please subscribe to our channel https://bit.ly/2vhCeFB and consider donating https://bit.ly/3J5uprM.

All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society, with the aim to perform and record all of Bach's works and share them online with the world for free. Visit our online treasury for more videos and background material on https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allo.... For concert dates and tickets go to https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/conc....

Emmanuel Frankenberg, harpsichord
Instrument: Nico van der Waals, 1977 after J.D. Dulcken

0:00 Fantasia
1:09 Fugue