Prelude and Fugue in A flat major BWV 862 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part I)

Prelude played by Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka

Fugue played by Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka

Prelude and Fugue in A flat major , BWV 862, form a pair of works in Part 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier , a collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard instruments by Johann Sebastian Bach .

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Prelude

A flat major is a key that is still very rare for Bach. On this occasion Hermann Keller refers to some passages from the St. Matthew Passion and speaks of a "dark solemnity"; Alfred Dürr characterizes the piece as a concert movement, Martin Geck as “Concertino”, Jörg Demus speaks of “Tempo di Minuetto”. Bars 39/40 with the parallel sixteenth bars are reminiscent of a toccata . Despite the vagueness of the character, the piece is relatively easy to play and will soon be “prescribed” in piano lessons. However, the musical objective, the desired tempo and the articulation of the note values ​​in measure 1 must be precisely defined and maintained. The motif introduced in the first bar returns almost continuously in the further course, with the exception of bar 16/17 in the cadenza to E flat major and bar 39/40, in a certain way the destination of the piece.

Gap

The triad breaks in the theme are reminiscent of the previous prelude. In general, a quiet time frame is recommended. Just as important as the subject itself, in the course of the piece of melodic soft sixteenths river, which is introduced first as a counterpoint and can also be heard in the interludes - all the more so as after the exposure only a single closed implementation follows all four voices namely in bars 27–31. The fugue does not contain any narrowing , inversions or other contrapuntal finesse, and this gives the impression of a calm, seemingly effortless freedom. The conclusion is delayed with a fallacy in bar 33, after which the theme is heard one last time in the soprano.

literature

• Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback . MN 718, H. & B. Schneider, Aarau 2005.
• Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier . 4th edition. Bärenreiter Introduction to Works, 2012, ISBN 978-3-7618-1229-7 .
• Cecil Gray: The Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues of JS Bach.  - Internet Archive . Oxford University Press, London / New York / Toronto 1938.

Web links

• The Well-Tempered Clavier I, Johann Sebastian Bach : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Hermann Keller : BWV 862. (PDF)
• BWV 862. (Flash) Edward Parmentier

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback . MN 718, H. & B. Schneider, Aarau 2005, p. 60