This work is transmitted as the sole source, a manuscript copied by a pupil of J. P. Kellner. Kellner was a contemporary of Bach and collected Bach's works; however, if it is a copy by his pupil, the possibility that it is Kellner's own work becomes very high.

However, several characteristics typical of Bach can be observed throughout the work. First, the theme, which includes this type of sequential progression and repeated notes, is a type frequently used by Bach before his Weimar period. Furthermore, after the complete presentation of the three-voice subject, long free passages are inserted between subject entries. This is a characteristic of Bach's early fugues. (In his middle to late period style, such as in The Well-Tempered Clavier, subject entries are presented consecutively, and free developmental sections appear, as it were, connecting subject groups.) Moreover, a clear perfect cadence modulating to the parallel major is placed almost in the middle of the piece, at measure 35. The technique of placing a perfect cadence within a fugue to give it symmetry is a form that Bach established in his later years, but its embryonic stage is already present here.

While it cannot be denied that some parts have become monotonous and trite due to sequential progressions and parallel motion in thirds, glimpses of chromaticism and skillful harmonic progressions are also evident, making it a profound fugue, regardless of its authorship.