Prelude and Fugue in E major BWV 878 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part II)

Prelude and Fugue in E major , BWV 878, 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

While Hermann Keller thinks of “the brightness and warmth of a summer landscape” in this prelude, Peter Benary senses “a serene cheerfulness and wisdom of age reflected, also a certain classicism in the clarity of the first eight bars”. The piece is for the most part set in three voices, each with a condensed voice towards the end of the two parts (24 or 30 bars). It should be noted how at the beginning of the second part the bass intervenes with the modulating his in the dialogue of the upper voices. The fifth bar before the end contains four different readings in the bass.

Gap

Whenever Bach's recourse to the stile antico is mentioned, this four-part fugue is rightly referred to. The theme does not come from Bach, but rather goes back to ancient traditions. It has its origins in the hymn lingua Pange , is found among others in the Missa Pange lingua by Josquin Desprez , in Ariadne musica of Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer , at Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann Kaspar Kerll , and is still in the finale of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony used .

The exposition, which allows the theme to rise from bass to soprano every bar and a half, is immediately followed by a development that is condensed with two narrow sections. In further developments with cadences in C sharp minor in bar 16 and in F sharp minor in bar 23, the theme is varied rhythmically and melodically. The harmonic tension reaches its climax from bar 33 with the modulation to G sharp minor in bar 35, which is followed by a threefold narrowing as a contrapuntal increase. In the nine following, final clocking the subject first heard in the soprano in the highest, up to that point saved location to a ² . Now the three upper voices float weightlessly down; the bass brings the theme for the last time, the soprano accompanies its downward movement in seconds, and the fugue closes with an intimate twist that brings us back to earth.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback. MN 718, H. & B. Schneider AG. Aarau, 2005. p. 103
2. ↑ see the explanations by Hermann Keller
3. ↑ Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback. MN 718, H. & B. Schneider AG. Aarau, 2005. p. 104
4. ↑ Hermann Keller: The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach , p. 146 ( Memento of the original from May 23, 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 878