Montgomery County Concert Band Charles H. Neidhardt DIRECTOR Ryan Pongras ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Bret Mascaro ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Prelude and Fugue - J.S. Bach arr. by Lucien Cailliet Fervent is My Longing, BVW 727 Fugue in G Minor, BVW 578 Ryan Pongras, Conductor

Prelude and Fugue: J.S. Bach (1685–1750)

Fervent is my Longing (Prelude), BVW 727 - The tune of this work was taken by Bach from contemporary sources. The tune, written originally by Hans Hassler in 1601, is a prayer for a blessed death. When Bach was organist at Weimar (1713–1714), he was charged with providing harmonic underpinning for the singing of Lutheran Chorale tunes chosen for each day, and this was one of those tunes.

Fugue in G Minor ("Little Fugue"), BVW 578 - Written between 1703 and 1707, this is one of Bach's most popular fugues and has been arranged and rearranged in almost every form for almost any type of ensemble. Had it not been for Felix Mendelssohn receiving as a gift a copyist's manuscript of the St. Matthew Passion from his grandmother in 1823, we might not know these Bach works being played today; it was this gift of the Passion that led Mendelssohn to his revival of J.S. Bach's music.

Credit: Montgomery County Concert Band - www.youtube.com/@montcoband