One of the great masterpieces of Reger's copious output for organ, this fantasy and fugue seems to be modeled on Bach's g minor fantasy and fugue, BWV 542. Like Bach's work, the opening fantasy is in a five-part structure which alternate between active, turbulent music and contrasting hushed, peaceful ones. It is highly chromatic although this work is solidly tonal, in d minor with frequent modulations. It resolves in the major key.

The second movement is a complex double fugue in D Major. The four-voice first fugue (in four voices) has a long and florid subject. The second fugue has a contrasting hushed mood, and is in five voices. The music then passes through a series of remote keys as the texture becomes mightier and more imposing as several of the voices are doubled and chains of trills break out, and ends convincingly in d minor.

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