Episode
140: PASSACALIA
- Podcast
- WTF Bach
- Published
- Jul 7, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3958
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://wtfbach.substack.com/p/140-passacalia
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Summary
Bachian folklore claims Bach used to disguise himself and wander into random churches to play the organ. After a few minutes the warden was frightened it was either the devil himself or Johann Sebastian Bach. I imagine this piece would have given such an impression. Pedal Shoes Anyone? The Passacaglia BWV 582 appears in the Andreas Bach Book upside down. Its title is in all capitals, spelled like the title of this episode. (Curiously, Buxtehude’s Passacaglia in D Minor BuxWV 16 also appears in all capitals, spelled the same— but it is not upside down.) Have a look: If we rotate the page and zoom in, we see the famous opening bars, played with only the feet: On this theme, Bach pens 20 variations, culminating in a brilliant fugue. The fugue has two countersubjects. Until I made this episode I hadn’t considered the Trinity as a possible vision for the fugue (the nature of countersubjects often demands that they move at different speeds to the theme) but it may be a helpful image: I went long on this episode, so I wasn’t able to feature a full recording of this, I’ll be back in a few days to feature Paul Jacobs. In the meanwhile, here is Ton Koopman’s recording with a score: We Rely Exclusively on Paid Subscriptions! Help WTF Bach endure: Join at WTFBach.com This is the only place Evan checks comments regularly.You can also make a one-time donation here: https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach https://venmo.com/wtfbach Thank you for your help! TRANSCRIPT: Hi everyone evan here thanks for tuning in just a quicker episode today or maybe it will be as long but certainly more spontaneous the few days I usually prepare for the podcast researching and writing the show I will now be busy preparing for and playing my first organ concert. I’m quite excited about that. I wrote about this exp…