Prelude and Fugue in C minor BWV 847 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part I)

Prelude played by Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka

Fugue played by Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka

Prelude and Fugue in C minor , BWV 847, form the second pair of works in Part 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier , a collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard instruments by Johann Sebastian Bach .

Prelude

When comparing the Prelude and Fugue in C major at the beginning of the Well-Tempered Clavier, it is noticeable that the two preludes are very similar, but the two fugues are structured very differently. The prelude in C minor contains 38 4/4 measures. It also begins with a series of chords , which are written out as sixteenth- note figures and are played around by alternating notes . The movement here is in two parts, but homophonic . As in the C major prelude, there is an eight-bar organ point on G, from bar 21. The following part is characterized by several changes in tempo, starting with Presto . This probably means a toccaten-like free tempo, almost improvising . Bar 34 is overwritten with Adagio , which demands a recitative style of playing, with variable tempo. The last four bars are to be played Allegro , which returns to the starting tempo.

An early version is handed down in the Clavier booklet for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach .

Gap

Bars 1 to 9 out of the joint

The fugue in C minor is in three parts and consists of 31 bars. In contrast to the C major fugue, it contains no narrow passages , instead numerous interludes , the first before the end of the exposition , before the theme appears for the first time in the bass part in bar 7. The complete lack of narrow passages and the numerous sixteenth runs give the piece a playful and vocal character. The conclusion of the fugue is designed as a dramatic increase: after the penultimate appearance of the theme in the bass, the flow of voices is abruptly interrupted by a brief general pause in bar 28. The last theme entry in the upper part is supported in the last two bars with an organ point on C and with additional harmony parts.

Carl Czerny overwritten the fugue with the playing instruction pianissimo e semper staccato , which is followed by numerous performers. Among the later arrangements of the fugue theme, the ragtime (well-tempered) by Paul Hindemith should be mentioned, which was composed in 1921 but only premiered in 1987. Hindemith was probably not entirely sure about the effect of this ragtime , as he preceded it with a soothing explanation:

“Do you think Bach is turning around in his grave? He doesn't think about it! If Bach was alive today, maybe he would have invented the shimmy , or at least included it in decent music. Perhaps he would have taken a theme from the well-tempered piano of a composer presenting Bach for him. "

literature

• Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback . MN 718, H. & B. Schneider, Aarau 2005.
• Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier . 4th edition. Bärenreiter Introduction to Works, 2012, ISBN 978-3-7618-1229-7 .
• Cecil Gray: The Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues of JS Bach.  - Internet Archive . Oxford University Press, London / New York / Toronto 1938.

Web links

• Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 847 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Hermann Keller : BWV 847 (PDF)
• BWV 847. (Flash) David Korevaar

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback . MN 718, H. & B. Schneider, Aarau 2005. p. 19
2. ↑ Cecil Gray: The forty-eight Preludes and Fugues of JS Bach . Oxford University Press, 1938. p. 15
3. ↑ Bernward Halbscheffel: Rock music and classic-romantic educational tradition , dissertation (Berlin, 2000). From this the chapter jazz and art music . (PDF)