Prelude and Fugue in C minor BWV 871 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part II)

Prelude and Fugue in C minor , BWV 871, 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

The prelude can on the one hand be viewed as a dance movement, on the other hand as a two-part invention , similar to the inventions and symphonies . As a dance movement, the piece is close to the Allemanden in Bach's suites , which indicates a rather slow choice of tempo. It consists of two repeated parts of 12 and 16 bars and corresponds exactly in this respect to the 6th French Suite in E major BWV 817, but the characteristic prelude in the upper part is missing . While in the first part a lovely character predominates through the parallel thirds in bars 5 to 8 and the conclusion in the tonic parallel in E flat major, in the second part the increased occurrence of non-ladder notes and unusual note jumps lead to increased expressivity.

Gap

The fugue contains 28 bars, the same as the prelude, and is also in time . Although four-part has been announced, the beginning is only three-part. In bar 8 the theme undergoes a rhythmic modification. The middle in bar 14 is clearly marked by the cadence after G minor. At this point, at the beginning of the second part, Bach comes up with contrapuntal tricks and almost simultaneously puts the theme in narrowing , augmentation in the middle voice and inversion in the lower voice. The fourth voice only sounds in bar 19 with the bass start. Carl Czerny tried to soften the harmonic harshness of the cross positions in bar 18 : In his edition, at the beginning of the bar in the lower part he places a flat and a 'instead of a and d', and in the upper part of the '' instead of d ''. However, what is or appears to be problematic in the vertical harmonic movement can usually be easily explained with Bach from the linear voice guidance .

A cadenza in the tonic in C minor in bar 23 is followed by a coda , with further narrowings and several mock inserts of the theme. In the penultimate measure, the polyphonic voice guidance is given up and the work ends with mighty chords.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Keller: The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach. Work and reproduction. P. 125 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Peter Benary: JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: Text - Analysis - Playback. MN 718, H. & B. Schneider AG. Aarau, 2005. p. 88

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 871