Surprisingly, the prelude is written after the fugue. According to Bolm, it was written in 1841. The relentless rhythmic drive is displayed through the non-ceasing arpeggio figures, while the melody is embedded in these figures.
According to Todd, Mendelssohn wrote this fugue at the bedside of his dying friend, August Hanstein, in 1827. The subject in the fugue features “angular sevenths” and “tritones” to describe Hanstein’s illness (172). It starts out slow, and soon, the tempo speeds up and the mood changes from being a melancholy calm to agitated, as the illness progresses. Similar to Rondo Capriccioso, Mendelssohn uses the same compositional technique, using a stentorian voice played in octaves as a means to build intensity before culminating the climactic event. In this case, the chorale, hymn-like section in E major is the crucial point. Although the subject returns in inversion near the end, the piece still concludes in E major.
I have an image of this fugue. Perhaps that will help someone perform:
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