WTC Bk. I, P&F in A minor

[dementedchord]

Hi,

Anyone played or analyzed this one before? I'm pretty sure I want to do it, and I've been trying to analyze it and running into difficulties. Any remarks anyone has on this piece would be greatly appreciated.

[mlsmithz]

Well, I've analysed the fugue from a musicological perspective but never a performer's perspective; I suspect you're more interested in the latter if you're trying to learn it for performance purposes.  All I can say is that while Gulda's bouncy, staccatissimo rendition does make me smirk, it shouldn't be played too staccato, and there's no real agreement on tempo - among the recordings, Joerg Demus and Gustav Leonhardt opt for around 66 beats/minute, while Friedrich Gulda, Ralph Kirkpatrick, Wanda Landowska, and Sviatoslav Richter hover at or slightly above the 80 beats/minute mark, and then Glenn "Certifiably Insane" Gould takes it at over 100 beats/minute. (No offence to fans of the crazy Canadian but he had some frankly bizarre ideas about tempi and articulation in Bach; I suppose you either love them or you don't, and sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.) The ideal is probably somewhere between 63 and 72 beats/minute, but there's plenty of latitude - whatever sounds optimal to you.  There's also no real agreement on subject articulation; no two renditions are alike, so play through it until you find an articulation you can fit into the stretto passages without too much difficulty.  Just like any Bach harpsichord fugue.

As for the prelude, again there's no strong agreement on tempo (there never is in Bach, really) - Kirkpatrick and Landowska take it at around 63 beats (beat=dotted crochet/quarter note) per minute, while Gould, Gulda, Leonhardt, and Rosalyn Tureck play it around 76 beats/minute, and Richter blazes through at 92 beats/minute.  Most of the published editions indicate something between 80 and 88, but, again, just choose a speed you think sounds optimal.

Such 'big picture' remarks are probably of little value, but I suppose they're a starting point if nothing else.  This is quite possibly the most difficult piece in Book I, so best of luck to you!