If the information Williams is correct the works were married by Griepenkerl
and Roitsch and otherwise have no connection (BWV 542)

The Fantasia is a wonderful Adagio in the Italian manner whereas the Fugue is
based on a Netherlands Folk Song also worked out by Reinken - or so it is
suggested based on the similarity of Bach's Fugue to Reinken's.

I feel therefore that I have some basis for separating the works. This is
more than a "feeling", though there is nothing wrong with musical intuition.

The function of certain Bach fugues is to   compliment (I think anyway) the
affect of the other half of the pair. The placidity of the F Major Fugue is a
counterbalance in mood to the Toccata and it's length compliments the first
section. The "Dorian" Toccata and Fugue are a similar match. Whether or not Bach
used "too many notes" at that stage of his career is another matter. If we
understood better the function of these works in his performance art then we
might have some answers about their length.

I have played the Toccata alone in recital once, and mostly because I went
through a crisis of interpretation regarding the Fugue as I prepared it for that
program....one of those "that's not how it should go" epiphanies that
sometimes happen at a late hour. The F Major Fugue is a complex and rich tapestry,
and I am still not sure what to make of it at all. In the interim I simply go
back to the way I learned it - in the French romantic approach more or less
though I don't really think it is quite right...it does come off.

Fire away, but I am very fond of Biggs' rib rocking recording of the Toccata.
He did not attach the fugue.

Cheers,

Carl Schwartz

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