Prelude and Fugue in B major BWV 868 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part I)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prelude played by Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka
Fugue played by Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka

Prelude and Fugue in B major , BWV 868, form a pair of works in the first part of the Well-Tempered Clavier , a collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard instruments by Johann Sebastian Bach .

Sheet music is temporarily disabled.

Prelude

The lovely, vocal character of this three-part invention differs fundamentally from its gloomy, pathetic-weighty predecessor in B flat minor , so that a direct succession with cyclical reproduction of the complete work does not seem to make sense. On closer inspection, the exactly symmetrical structure can be seen. The piece is divided into four parts. The first part has five bars and closes with a cadenza in the dominant F sharp major. In measure 6, the main motif is recorded in the bass. After four and a half bars there is a turn into the parallel tonic in G sharp minor. In the middle of the piece, in bar 10, there is a new, also cantable motif with four eighth notes, which is sequenced in the next bar . This third part returns after four and a half measures to the tonic in B major, which in turn comprises five measures. In the last three bars the movement condenses to four, in the final chord even to five parts. However, this condensed movement should be interpreted unobtrusively in order to maintain the peaceful character of the piece, which is reinforced by the quarter notes in bar 17 and the simultaneous sounding of the head motif and its reversal in the following bar.

Gap

More than in other examples from the Well-Tempered Clavier, this fugue is related to the preceding prelude: the first four notes of the theme already correspond to the beginning of the prelude. The harmoniously balanced, symmetrical structure is also surprising in the joint. The symmetry is already established in the ambitus of the theme, which frames the tonic root with two fourths: f sharp-h-e 1 . The four-part work consists of two equally long parts of 17 bars each. Each part contains a complete implementation as well as one that consists of only two operations: in the first part of the operative part and Alt (cycle 11 and 16), in the second part of alto and soprano (cycle 29 and 31). The use of the theme in bar 24 with a diminished (instead of the pure) fifth, combined with a twist to C sharp minor, is remarkable. On the other hand, the theme with its numerous second steps enables reversals , which Bach only explored twice: for the first time, the fugue middle in the upper part is marked in bar 18 in this way, two bars later the second reversal takes place in alto. The ending triad in the third register is also attractive and as rare as it is remarkable. This conclusion allows for a preparatory ritardando , to which the small dialogue in the penultimate measure, which is comparable to the one in the prelude, also invites.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Hermann Keller : The Well-Tempered Clavier ( Memento of the original from August 9, 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. (PDF) p. 111 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hermann-keller.org
  2. Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback . MN 718, H. & B. Schneider, Aarau 2005, p. 77