BWV 545: Prelude and Fugue in C major

Knowing that I was soon going to leave Germany to study in Japan for a few years, I wanted to make good use of my remaining time with easy access to a pipe organ. While waiting for the pandemic to calm down so I could finally enter Japan, I had much time to reflect on my home country and the connections I have to it. Thanks to my parents, I had the pleasure of growing up in our friendly local church community, which I realized is much of what “home” means to me. As a kind of “farewell present”, I would like to present my try at playing the Prelude and Fugue in C major by Johann Sebastian Bach on the beautiful organ of our church.

This is my first effort of practicing a full organ piece, and even with years of experience playing the piano, it took almost nine months. In this process, I received help with reading sheet music by my piano instructor Christian Schomers. I received advice on the musical form by my mother Karin Schirm, who herself is an organist in church. The sacristan of our church, Reinhold Bauer, took his time to teach me interesting details about the instrument and tune its pipes. For example, I was particularly fascinated by a 16-feet stop called “trombone” (that is 5 meters!), which I activated for the final subject in the bassline at the end of the fugue. Unfortunately, the low notes of this stop get out of tune relatively fast depending on air temperature and humidity, and I needed the help of Mr. Bauer several times.

By the way, I already started to develop an interest in Bach’s music about two years ago, when I studied in England in 2018. I am also working my way through his challenging Well-Tempered Clavier since this time.