As the headnote indicates, there is some question regarding authorship of this work. If Bach did compose this Fugue, he likely wrote it during the earliest years of the eighteenth century when he was still a student. The work is not an inconsequential one in either scope or length, having a fairly substantial structure and lasting around five or six minutes. The fugal writing is interesting, though not as distinctive in its more calculating manner as is heard in most other Bach fugues. That said, the music is well-crafted and in the end worthwhile, if minor. The Fugue opens with a lively, stately theme presented in single notes that immediately turns fugal. In the wrong hands this work can sound tedious, since the theme repeats throughout and thus requires its contrapuntal features to be sharply detailed and brought into proper focus. Near the end there is a cadenza-like episode that builds up to a grand close, the theme triumphantly resounding. This Fugue has a glorious sense about it, not unlike the style of many of Bach's more ecstatic chorale preludes. Still, one cannot clearly identify the distinctive voice of the composer's mature or even early years here.

© All Music Guide