The piece means through recurrence. The passacaglia ground is not just a bass pattern; it is a law the listener learns by being made to return to it. Each variation changes the pressure above that law, so order becomes something active, severe, and almost bodily rather than merely elegant.

The fugue matters because it proves the law has moved inward. Around 7:30 the repeated ground stops being only a floor and becomes a way for every line to think. By the final silence after about 12:35, the piece has not solved tension by escaping order. It has sustained order until it becomes memory: dark, exact, and still walking after the organ stops.