Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I, Praeludium VIII

Description

Its key is E-flat minor, an unusual one with six flats, while the fugue that follows is notated in the enharmonic D-sharp minor: this pair is known for its prelude and fugue carrying different key spellings. The prelude is the eighth piece of Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Set in 3/2, a slow triple time suggestive of a sarabande, it has an ornamented melody singing over an accompaniment of broken chords. The texture is sparse, and the piece speaks through the sound of its harmony and the spacing of its melody. It is regarded as one of the most introspective pieces in the collection. Its range runs from D2 to C6, within a 61-key keyboard.

Rated intermediate, it lasts about 3 minutes 4 seconds with 680 notes in this data, a modest count for its length. The difficulty lies not in the fingers but in keeping the broken chords from blurring, and in carrying the melody unbroken through the slow triple time; the black-key chord shapes also take some getting used to. Slow the playback to check the chord shapes, and use an A-B loop to hear the long melodic phrases again and again, and the direction of the expression will settle.

Bach's collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard, covering all 24 keys and regarded as the summit of contrapuntal writing.