The Prelude (Andante, completed February 23, 1951) is characterized by passionate, majestic bass lines and thick chords, evoking the sound of an organ. The middle section, which modulates to a major key, maintains this grandeur but suddenly becomes enveloped in tranquility. Notably, the first subject of the fugue is already anticipated in this section. After a quiet recapitulation of the main section, the theme of the middle section echoes in the bass, leading with rich emotion into the fugue.

The Fugue (4 voices, Moderato, completed February 25, 1951), which crowns the work, is a magnificent double fugue. As previously mentioned, the first subject was already foreshadowed in the quiet middle section of the prelude. The second subject, introduced when the theme is fragmented and the music subsides, is a continuous eighth-note figure, a so-called "iambic pulse," which then prompts an acceleration in tempo. Amidst the tension heightened to its maximum by successive fortissimos, modulations, and repeated octaves, the first subject is restated at its loudest. The two subjects then resound sonorously, echoing like bells, grandly concluding the entire collection in D major.