Prelude and Fugue in B flat major BWV 890 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part II)

Prelude and Fugue in B flat major , BWV 890, form a pair of works in Part 2 of the Well-Tempered Clavier , a collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard instruments by Johann Sebastian Bach .

Prelude

The Prelude in ¹² / ₁₆ ¯ clock is the one hand, "a round of indescribable Grace", on the other hand formally divided quite complicated. It consists of two parts, separated by a double line with a repeat symbol . The first part comprises 32 bars, the second 55 bars. However, the piece also contains multiple three-way divisions according to the scheme ab-a '. On the one hand, this applies to the first part, in which a second motif occurs in bar 9, whereupon the initial motif returns in bar 17. On the other hand, the piece is also structured as a whole according to the scheme aba '. Some musicologists see a preform of sonata form and designate accordingly, the motif in bar 9 as a side issue , the beginning of the second part as the implementation and deployment of the upper voice in bar 49 as a reprise . The bass lead in bar 51 is also striking, in which an hcab appears in a rhythm that only appears here, the reversal of the BACH note sequence . One bar before the fermata in bar 76, the movement condenses to four-part, followed by a brief clouding of the minor in bars 84 and 85, before the piece finishes gracefully with an oppositely arpeggiated triad in the tonic .

Gap

The theme begins - unusual in Bach's fugues - on c, a second above the root note, falls in the first bar to the lower sixth d and thus recalls the prelude. The further structure of the topic consists of rhythmically uniform sequences in the form a-a'-b-b '. Curiously, the note sequence appears the Comes only in its first appearance in bar 5 and is subsequently not be repeated. The piece contains 93 bars; the middle of the fugue in bar 47 is marked by the first thematic version in minor, the parallel key in G minor. From bar 33 there are two obbligato counterpoints which, together with the theme, form a three-part movement that appears five times in various inversions. "But these contrapuntal displacements are treated casually, as it were, and do not disturb the cheerful carelessness of the fugue."

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Keller: The Well-Tempered Clavier , p. 175 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ z. B. Cecil Gray, Hermann Keller
3. ↑ Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback. MN 718, H. & B. Schneider AG. Aarau, 2005. p. 136
4. ↑ Hermann Keller: The Well-Tempered Clavier , p. 177 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

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 9783761812297 . 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 890