Prelude and Fugue in A flat major BWV 886 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part II)

Prelude and Fugue in A flat major , BWV 886, form a pair of works in the 2nd part of the Well-Tempered Clavier , a collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard instruments by Johann Sebastian Bach .

Prelude

This prelude impresses with its majestic size. The key of the 77 bars is clearly structured and, in this respect, can best be compared with the Prelude in F major from the second part. After 16 bars in the tonic in A flat major, 17 bars in the dominant E flat major, 16 bars in the tonic parallel in F minor and 14 bars in the subdominant D flat major follow until the tonic is reached again in bar 64. In addition, the first two bars already contain an alternation between four-part, concertante “ tutti ” and two-part “solo”. Two Neapolitan sixth chords can be found as a harmonious peculiarity, for the first time in bar 31. The second Neapolitan in bar 74 leads in the unusual key of Heses major - a phrase that is repeated towards the end of the fugue.

Jörg Demus describes the modulatory events of this prelude in a poetic way:

“We just have to let the cadence stream carry us, entrust our little ship on the broad, musical waves of the almost unmanageable A flat major prelude to the right pull of the dominant in bar 16, then give it a subdominant turn with a skilful stroke to the left, sure Via the 'Neapolitaner' on G flat in measure 31 to the tonic parallel in F minor in measure 34. It takes some effort to get afloat again, we linger briefly on the lovely D-flat major shores from bar 50, are drifted a little to the dominant (bar 62); but now the river widens to a stream, the dominant becomes the 'half-close' in bar 63, and in the regained middle of the stream from A flat major we drift safely before we safely dock. "

Gap

Beginning of the fugue in A flat major (bars 1–27) in the London autograph

The fugue in A flat major holds some surprises. It contains 50 bars, is announced as four-part and does in fact begin with four thematic entries in the order alto - soprano - tenor - bass, but at the fourth thematic entry in bar 8 the fourth part (soprano or alto?) Says goodbye. As a result, the piece initially remains three-part and only becomes four-part in bar 42. The three closing bars, with the last thematic entry, are even set in five voices. The first interlude in bars 10–13, in which the duet of the two upper voices, with thematic notes, covers the seven- fold sequence of the bass in sixteenth notes, offers another confusion . An early version of the fugue was written by Bach in his Köthen years, belonged to a prelude with Fughetta in F major (BWV 901) and contained only 23 bars. It ended on the first eighth of bar 24 of the later version in A flat major, which was composed about 20 years later.

The theme is consistently shaped by the interval of the fourth . There is no theme tone that is not reached or left with a fourth jump or is in a fourth gear.

The finely balanced contrasts between the theme and the two accompanying counterpoints deserve closer inspection . In contrast to the diatonic of the theme is the chromatic of the first counterpoint, which contains a passage duriusculus . While the theme begins with eighth notes and ends in a rhythmic crescendo with sixteenth notes , the second counterpoint, which appears for the first time in bar 5, flows consistently in smoothly flowing sixteenth notes . As in the prelude, towards the end (bar 45) there is a Neapolitan sixth chord that leads to Heses major, a semitone above the tonic.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jörg Demus: Adventure of Interpretation , 1967. P. 30, in: Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback. MN 718, H. & B. Schneider AG. Aarau, 2005. p. 125
2. ↑ Hermann Keller: The Well-Tempered Clavier , p. 165 ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback. MN 718, H. & B. Schneider AG. Aarau, 2005. p. 126

literature

• Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback . MN 718, H. & B. Schneider AG. Aarau, 2005.
• Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier . Bärenreiter factory introductions. ISBN 978-3-7618-1229-7 . 4th edition 2012
• Cecil Gray: The forty-eight Preludes and Fugues of JS Bach . Oxford University Press, 1938.

Web links

• The Well-Tempered Clavier II, Johann Sebastian Bach : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Hermann Keller: BWV 886