The Perpetual Evolution of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia (BWV 903): a Study of Style and Interpretative Strategies

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia (BWV 903) has, since its traceable origins (from ca. 1720), been considered a unica. It made lasting impression on the composer’s circles and was cited by historians such as Johann Nikolaus Forkel as a key representation of Bach’s “Originalgenie”. BWV 903 has been counted among Bach’s most enigmatic and puzzling works, partly due to lost autograph and partly due to its unique attributes (Behringer, 1999). Stylistically, the two-part structure—a prelude followed by a recitative—has no precedents, and has been considered both as the descendant of the seventeenth-century stylus phantasticus (Stauffer, 1989) and a precursor of the Sturm und Drang of the 1770s (Schleuning, 1992). Nowadays, BWV 903 is an ideal work to explore how the historically-informed performer can maintain the essence of improvisation in a work that was composed, for three main reasons. First, there exists no definite text that can be unarguably ascribed to Bach’s original work, since the most authoritative source of this music derives from Forkel’s version (ca. 1770) of Wilhelm Friedemann’s copy (ca. 1730). Secondly, the notation, especially in the arpeggio passages, is manifestly incomplete. Thirdly, the scope for the performer’s discretion in matters such as flexible timing and melodic embellishments is plentiful, especially in the “Recitativo” section. In this article, I would discuss how an awareness of the structure and a study of stylistic issues could illuminate both technical and musical considerations leading to performances that are creative and spontaneous, yet scrupulous to the notational detail. On a deeper level, understanding the music as language is crucial for making sense of the chromatic, dissonant and sometimes atonal harmonies, for organizing notes into coherent and meaningful groups, and for crafting rhetorical gestures in the recitative section. While Leisinger’s critical edition (1999) provides the principal text for modern interpretation, the variant readings in both concordant manuscripts and modern recordings offer numerous ideas for refinements of melodic embellishments and rhythmic nuances.