Prelude and Fugue in E minor "The Wedge", BWV 548
by Johann Sebastian Bach
BWV 548 is widely considered the summit of Bach's organ writing. The Prelude unfolds over a vast arch, with sweeping manual passages above a steady pedal ostinato building to a massive climax before subsiding in a mirror image. The Fugue earns its nickname "The Wedge" from its subject: a melody that expands outward from its central note by chromatic intervals, step by step, creating a shape that widens like a wedge. The fugue is a technical tour de force, combining augmentation, stretto, and invertible counterpoint with exhilarating drama. Composed in Bach's Leipzig years (c. 1727–31), it has been a centrepiece of organ recital programmes for two centuries.
Editions
Bärenreiter
Heinz-Harald Löhlein (NBA), 1970
Part of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe; the critical scholarly edition with full source commentary.
Peters
Friedrich Conrad Griepenkerl & Ferdinand Roitzsch, 1845
The historic Peters edition; historically important and still found in many libraries.
Breitkopf & Härtel
Ernst Naumann, 1900
From the Bach Gesellschaft complete edition; the 19th-century scholarly standard.