Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I, Fuga I
Description
The fugue in four voices that follows the first prelude of Book I. Where the prelude is made of nothing but chords, this is made of nothing but four independent lines. Setting two opposite kinds of writing side by side in the same C major declares the stance of the whole collection.
In C major and common time, the subject is short and almost unornamented. What distinguishes the piece is how the entries overlap: stretto, in which the next voice enters before the previous one has finished the subject, is used repeatedly. With four voices crowding together, the texture stays dense despite the brevity.
It is rated intermediate, but it is not an easy introduction to fugue. Playing four voices with two hands requires always knowing which finger is carrying which line. Work voice by voice, then two at a time, then all four — that order is the reliable one. And give each entry of the subject a shade more weight as it arrives.
Bach's collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard, covering all 24 keys and regarded as the summit of contrapuntal writing.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was the towering figure of German Baroque music, serving for decades as Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Renowned for his mastery of counterpoint, he laid the foundations of keyboard music with works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Inventions. This site includes minuets and polonaises from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, the Inventions and Sinfonias, and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier. The Notebook pieces are catalogued with BWV Anh. (appendix) numbers, but many are by other composers - Petzold's minuets among them - or by no one known, and most of their song pages give the current view of who wrote them.
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