Ranking of difficulty of Well Tempered Clavier Preludes

[bwv846]

I am an adult beginner.  I started taking lessons about a year ago.  I LOVE the Well Tempered Clavier.  I would appreciate any info on ranking of the difficulty of the preludes in the Well Tempered Clavier.  I know there have been discussions of ranking the difficulty of the Well Tempered Clavier (for example, Bartok), but it is my understanding that those take into account the fugues as well.  It will be a while before I am ready to play fugues, so it would be nice to have a ranking of just the preludes.  Thanks.

[philb]

From Bernhard...

Have a look here:

https://www.serve.com/marbeth/fugues.html

Now here is a progressive order for learning the WTC (from easiest to most difficult). As with all lists of this kind, variations do exist, and I would love to see some different lists. (Hmoll?)

1. no. 15 in  G (Book II)
2. no. 6 in Dm
3. no. 21 in Bb
4. no. 10 in Em
5. no. 20 in Am (Book II)
6. no. 11 in F
7. no. 2 in Cm
8. no. 9 in E
9. no. 13 in F#
10. no. 21 in Bb (Book II)
11. no. 6 in Dm (Book II)
12. no. 19 in A (Book II)
13. no. 11 in F (Book II)
14. no. 19 in A
15. no. 14 in F#m
16. no. 18 in G#m
17 no. 2 in Cm (Book II)
18. no. 5 in D
19. no. 7 in Eb
20. no. 14 in F#m (Book II)
21. no. 7 in Eb (Book II)
22. no. 1 in C
23. no. 17 in Ab
24. no. 13 in F# (Book II)
25. no. 15 in G
26. no. 12 in Fm (Book II)
27. no. 1 in C (Book II)
28. no. 24 in Bm (Book II)
29. no. 10 in Em (Book II)
30. no. 16 in Gm
31. no. 5 in D (Book II)
32. no. 18 in G#m (Book II)
33. no. 24 in Bm
34. no. 9 in E (Book II)
35. no. 4 in C#m (Book II)
36. no. 23 in B
37. no. 3 in C# (Book II)
38. no. 12 in Fm
39. no. 3 in C#
40. no. 8 in D#m (Book II)
41. no. 22 in Bbm
42. no. 17 in Ab (Book II)
43. no 4 in C#m
44. no. 8 in D#m
45. no. 20 in Am
46. no. 22 in Bbm (Book II)
47. no. 16 in Gm (Book II)
48. no. 23 in B (Book II)


Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[j_menz]

That list appears to take the fugues into account.

I'd start with the Preludes in the keys you are familiar with. The C major prelude from book 1 (the first one) is probably the easiest (for a beginner - it's actually one of the harder ones to do really well). Then have a look at the two books and do the Cmaj, Amin, Gmaj, Emin, Fmaj, Dmin and so on. Also, go for the ones that are slower and more melodic.

Alternatively, you could have a look at his 18 little preludes as a warm-up. Or the 2 part inventions.

[49410enrique]

That list appears to take the fugues into account.

I'd start with the Preludes in the keys you are familiar with. The C major prelude from book 1 (the first one) is probably the easiest (for a beginner - it's actually one of the harder ones to do really well). Then have a look at the two books and do the Cmaj, Amin, Gmaj, Emin, Fmaj, Dmin and so on. Also, go for the ones that are slower and more melodic.

Alternatively, you could have a look at his 18 little preludes as a warm-up. Or the 2 part inventions.

good stuff. also might be a good 'warm up' to work through this....

[iratior]

Before offering any opinion as to which preludes are more difficult than which others, some preliminary understandings are necessary.  First, this will be only my opinion;  it is not fact.  Second, I respect everybody's right to have their own opinions as to which pieces are more difficult than which others.  Thus, if they think that the Moonlight Sonata is more difficult than the Hammerklavier, that is their opinion, they are entitled to it, and it is none of my business to question it.  De gustibus non disputandum est.  We all have our personal aesthetic and musical standards, and just because some may be unable to imagine how some others make their assessments does not mean that such assessments were not reasonable by the standards of the person who made them.  Thus, by one person's standard, a rendition of the Moonlight Sonata's first movement might be unacceptable unless the precision of the dynamics could be measured in hundredths of decibels.   A person with such a  standard might very well find that the Moonlight Sonata was more difficult than the Hammerklavier.  And for all the attention given to the goal of hitting the right notes, all the right notes, and nothing but the right notes, I notice that many performers are taking what I would regard as outrageous liberties with the rhythm and tempo.  With that as the preliminary remarks, here is my vote for how to rank the preludes, from easiest to most difficult (capital letters for major key preludes, lower case for minor,- for flat):  Cfb-e-Egc#aC#F#B-f#g#DABGbA-cFdeE-.

[rpiano18]

I've played a good few of the preludes and fugues from book 1 at this point. I think the B-flat minor prelude is more difficult than people say it is. It is certainly much harder than the G minor prelude, the B major prelude, and (in my opinion) the B-flat major as well. The prelude is in five voices, and to perform it well it requires very deep attention to voicing and the upmost sensitivity in touch on the piano. Of course, this is the piano. If we are playing harpsichord, the B-flat minor is much easier than the preludes I mentioned above. There is one bar in particular towards the middle of the prelude that takes so much practice to voice correctly since each voice is moving so differently.

If you're just looking to play the notes, the B-flat minor is among the easiest. Taking everything into account though, I'd say its easily among the more difficult. The fugue is similarly challenging for the same reasons. I would actually say that this is one of the few preludes and fugues where each half is about the same in difficulty.

I've only played about 6 of the preludes and fugues from book 1 and a few from book 2, so I will not attempt to provide a full difficulty ranking for all of them. The G major prelude from book 2 is a good place to start. I also recommend B major (book 1), E major (book 1), and C minor (book 1 or book 2). The book 1 C minor is quite fast and can be tricky but with good technique it shouldn't give you too much trouble. The book 2 C minor is basically a two-part invention and if you've played those, this will be quite similar.

NOTE: this is just preludes, the fugues for all of these pieces are quite a bit more difficult, especially the B major! That fugue is an absolute nightmare and it haunts me to this day!

[dizzyfingers]

I think it would be interesting to have a ranking of difficulty of just the preludes and of just the fugues.
Apparently the list above by Bernhard is a combination, at least one person thought so - not an easy thing to do, more prone to disagreement.