Which Bach Fugue and Prelude

[Franz_Liszt_X]

   Since my teacher has gone away for a month, and he has left me an assignment to learn a Bach Fugue and Prelude, Contemporary work or, Romantic Work, I need some suggestions on which one to learn. I have some experience with Polyphony and am willing to learn a lower level piece such as a 3-part invention or Suite before studying the Bach Fugue and Prelude.
    FYI, I am not saying that 3-part inventions and Suites are easy by saying that they are lower level pieces. Anything that you draw on the side that I am pompous is probably your misinterpretation. I am not trying to show any sort of Extemporaneousness or impatience by stating that I want to jump from Bach 2-part inventions to a Fugue and Prelude. This explanation is off topic, but I just want to avert any mishap and hinder my fellow posters from insulting me.
    I have a sort of fondness for Polyphony.

[Hmoll]

I'm not sure that there is any hard and fast rule that you have to go from the 2 part inventions to the three-part inventions, and then to the preludes and fugues. If you have played a few of the two part inventions, then why not try to tackle something from the WTC (a lot of the fugues are 3 voices anyway).

My suggestion would be p&f #2 from book one. Sure it is played a lot, but it is a good piece of music, and you can learn a lot from it.

[88keys]

I second Hmoll's recomendation.

I've never even HEARD any of Bach's 3-part inventions, and I can play only a few fugues from the WTC (counterpoint is a weak spot of mine).

#2 from book 1 is one of them. And it has a nice prelude that goes with it, too...

[Franz_Liszt_X]

   Let's say I practice that Fugue+Prelude 2 hours a day. With that amount of practice and my current polyphonic experience (6 bach 2pt. inventions), coupled with accurate practice. Between how long will it take me to learn it technically? Technically and Musically?

[88keys]

Nobody can really give you an accurate answer for this question.

It depends on many factors, from the kind of practice you are doing through the amount of guidance you have to your personal strengths and weaknesses at the piano.

It also depends on your definition of "knowing a piece". A small difference in the quality you expect from yourself may translate into many hours of practice time.

[Franz_Liszt_X]

Should I learn the prelude and fugue at the same time, or separate? If separate, should the prelude be learned first?

[88keys]

It doesn't really matter.

The prelude and the fugue are two seperate complete works. There is no musical connection between them (except for the key - C minor), and they require totally different techniques: The prelude's main challange is simple raw speed, while the fugue is... well, a fugue.

So learn them in any order you want.

[Hmoll]

Franz_Liszt:

In response to your question about how long it would take to learn the piece in question: we won't be able to answer that.

However, don't be in a rush to learn music. Try to find out for yourself how long it takes you to learn different styles, and don't worry if you think you are taking long. Your learning will speed up as you get more experience.
Especially since this will be your first prelude & fugue, you want to get it "right."

Two things to think consider:

1) Rushing the learning process can lead to not learning a piece of music completely and comprehensively. I'm not saying you will do this if you rush the process, I'm saying that evryone does this when they rush the process.

2) When I hear a great performance by a pianist of a piece of music, I couldn't care less how long it took him or her to learn it.

[dreamaurora]

I agree with Hmoll completely. To add to this point. Many pianists seem to have this thinking that once they learn a piece and can play it in time, they have 'mastered the piece'. I guess this is a normal human nature, many young pianists seem want to rush and play as many pieces as they can, never bothering to sit down and work out the music from the pieces they are learning. Just go to any music competitions nowadays, most of the pianists play 200% correct notes, and 0% music. As a general rule, once you get the notes and tone right for the piece, you will need to take at least double or triple the time taken for learning the notes to work out the music. Most pianists don't see the point of spending a lot of times working out the music. Compete with yourself to make better music, and communicate often with your teacher to gauge your music making capability. You may think you master a piece well, but a teacher can always find some constructive feedback for you.

[BoliverAllmon]

I agree dream, I recently learned the notes to Bach's 2-part invention No.8 It took me only around 5 weeks to learn all the notes and put the hands together. I still have 2 months or so before this fund-raiser for the music dept. at school, but my teacher told me that I would not have the piece in playable condition by the time of ther performance. I want to prove her wrong, but it doesn't look like it is going to happen.

BoliverAllmon