Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I, Fuga VI
Description
Taut minor-key counterpoint in three voices follows the brilliance of the D major No. 5: this is the D minor fugue, No. 6 of Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier. The book keeps that order throughout, pairing major and minor on each tonic as it climbs through the twenty-four keys, and its autograph title page is dated 1722.
It is a three-voice fugue in D minor and 3/4. The subject moves with purpose within the triple metre, and as it passes among the three voices it also appears turned upside down (in inversion). It has 714 notes in 98 seconds, and its range, F2 to C6, makes little use of the low register and fits on a 61-key keyboard. The writing is strict, yet the subject itself is expressive, so the music is more than a demonstration of theory.
It is rated intermediate. Since the subject appears both in its original form and inverted, it matters to present both as the same subject. Lower the playback speed to find the two forms in the score view and see which voice has each. Settle the middle voice with the hand colours, and repeat with an A-B loop any spot where the feel of three beats tends to slip, so that the three voices stay even within the calm flow.
Bach's collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard, covering all 24 keys and regarded as the summit of contrapuntal writing.
Browse all songs in The Well-Tempered Clavier →Sheet Music
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.
View all works by Bach →