Bach - Prelude and Fugue in f minor, BWV857 (WTC I)

[andhow04]

the dark and rhapsodic f minor from the first book, a big contrast from the second book which has an elegant, bipartite prelude and stormy fugue.

this prelude is written in an intense contrapuntal style with specific notes elongated, making it sound rather rich. and also probably would work well on the organ as well. the fugue is a four voice, with very chromatic subject (f minor is halfway through the chromatic scale, perhaps anticipating the chromatic b minor subject at the end of the scale, that uses all twelve notes), and two counter-subjects.

in a way the two counter-subjects make it easier to play, because the material is often repeated but in inverted arrangements, so the subject is here in te soprano, there in the bass, the counter-subejct #1 is here in the tenor, there in the alto, or what not. overall i did not find this a complicated fugue to learn, and also reflected that rhythmically bach has a huge variety of tools at his disposal.  rhythmically this fugue is not very complicated, and the structure is also pretty straight forward.


here's the link to the f minor from book II:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=44690.0

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UPDATE: 1/25/2013 replaced this surreptitiously with a new version, as the piano was out of tune in the old, and also i wanted to refashion the fugue.