Josef Ferdinand Norbert Seger, Fuga, C Dur (L 7)

by admin · December 17, 2022

Seger’s Fuga in C major could be combines with the preceding Prelude (L 6) to create the idiomatic combination of “Prelude and fugue”. It’s almost certain that they were not intended as an indivisible couple, but there is no law against combining them. To emphesize the possible combination I play the fugue on the same sample set as I played the Prelude and use a similar registration.

Another question is whether or not this fugue could or should be played with the pedals. It is certainly tempting to do so, because the largest part of the bass voice lends itself very good for playing with the feet. And certainly in places where the fugue is written in four simultaneously sounding parts it seems logical to do so. There is however the question of how far the pedal board on the organ where Seger was organist extended. Nowadays the organ of the Týn Church in Prague where Seger was organist has a full pedal board. But that might not have been the case in Seger’s own days. Organs from the same period and region that are unaltered since then feature a pedal board that does not go higher than a in the small octave. Perhaps the most idiomatic way to play the pedals in Seger’s music is to not use the pedals higher than that a. But that does not fit this composition very well. So, for this time, I ignore that possible limit and play the pedals higher than that a.

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Sonus Paradisi, of the Schnittger organ in the St. Martini-kerk, Groningen (https://www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/netherlands/groningen-st-martini.html).

Score
Seger, Fuga, C Dur (L 7)