Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 889 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part II)

Prelude and Fugue in A minor , BWV 889, 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

In sharp contrast to the previous pair of works in a lovely composed A major, the two pieces are in A minor. Here the prelude appears as a mathematically sophisticated construction in the form of a two-part invention , in two parts of 16 bars each. The symmetrical structure is emphasized by the fact that in the first half of the second part (bars 17-24) the two themes appear in reverse . The simultaneous exchange of voices at this point is already given in bar 2 in double counterpoint. Meanwhile, constantly occurring chromatics and modulations , which are seldom confirmed or fixed by cadences , together with the non-stop, create an incessant tension on a rhythmic, melodic and contrapuntal level.

Gap

As an expressive antithesis to the A major fugue BWV 888, which is characterized by the sangible interval of the third , this three-part fugue offers an example of the stylus phantasticus . The fugue appears as "the only outburst of temper", it "doesn't care much about school rules". The theme does not allow an exact specification of its length, since its conclusion changes in the course of the fugue. The numerous dismembering pauses contribute to the bizarre, wild character, which are absorbed from bar 18 by the unusually long rise of the bass over two and a half octaves. The 29 bars offer rhythmic liveliness with numerous sequences of quarter, eighth and 32nd notes, but strangely enough no 16th note runs. The melody of the beginning of the theme, with the cross motif and the characteristic descending diminished seventh , was common knowledge among Bach's contemporaries and successors. It is encountered, for example, in the choral movement “Through his wounds we are healed” by Handel's Messiah , in the finale of the F minor string quartet by Joseph Haydn op. 20 ( Hoboken index III: 35), and in the “Kyrie” of Mozart's Requiem . With Bach, however, the listener has to wait until bar 3 to hear the keynote a, in an unstressed position! The succinct severity of the subject is also reflected in its lack of secondary steps . However, these appear abundantly in the torn-off thirty-second notes and rolling trills of the accompanying counterpoint , which completes the picture of a mental storm.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Keller: The Well-Tempered Clavier, p. 174 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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. ↑ Hermann Keller: The Well-Tempered Clavier, p. 174 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been 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 889