fugue from Bach's A Minor Prelude and Fugue, BWV 543
I can't deal with the Beethoven String Quartet fugues -- especially the Große Fugue, just makes me angry. To a lesser extent the one from Op. 131. However, from Op. 110 is more my speed, although I can only just hack through it not very well.Bach: From the Chromatic Fantasy+Fugue (d minor)The fugues in E minor from the Toccata and from the E minor PartitaContrapunctus IV from Ars fugaAnd, you know, the kind of silly E minor fugue from WTCI -- yeah, I know it's only two voices and isn't really much to analyze, I just think it's a fun, light one that is kind of ominous sounding (and for me it can be challenging to play it as quick as humanly possible -- even Gould's tempo is more than I can manage and have it sound smooth).From WTCI, A major Prelude (it is a fugue) and the Fugue are great. As is the Bbm, and the E major, also from WTCI, is so lighthearted and fun.
E minor fugue from WTCI -- yeah, I know it's only two voices - I was going to say that this is one of his weakest fugues.
The E minor fugue from WTC I is really fun to play. It's a great little finger exercise too.
E major, also from WTCI - the prelude is not a fugue - sorry! Or you mean the fugue, not the prelude. The fugue is great.
How about the c# minor fugue from book 1 - Maybe my favorite of all
Yeah, I like it because it's simple and kind of stupid -- well, not stupid, exactly, it's just simple and kind of strange, not much like the other fugues in the 48. And it's a nice warm up to try to play lightning fast smoothly -- I'm not at maximum physical possible speed, but it's still fun to try to get as fast as possible. Even the prelude, while it's kind of boring, well, instead of doing scales in thirds you can just rip through the "presto" portion and save some time. Similarly, a more interesting fugue, also considered one of the "easier" ones, the Bb major from book 1: just something about the way the textures of the thirds sounds on a modern piano is very pleasant to me. The G minor fugue from book 1 too, not very difficult, but it just sounds good, you know, to heck with complexity -- plus, easier to sight-read! Yeah, the Prelude from WTCI E major is one of the weakest preludes in both books IMHO -- the one from BkII, the prelude, is interesting, though, as are both fugues. If it were me, I'd just swap the E major Sinfonia for the prelude, more interesting, or at least the E maj prelude from book 2, which has some next textures. About as opposite characters, the fugues, as you can get but both great for different reasons. The Book I fugue is almost like a late baroque rock and roll piece. Very snappy!I'd have to look and refresh my memory. I will split the difference and say the F# minor fugue is great, from Bk I.//ETA just read through the prelude and fugue, book I, C# minor. I don't even think I'd read those before. The prelude is simple and charming.The fugue is, it reminds me of the Bbm from WTCI -- the notes, any kid can play, but having it make sense, the structure (it's a long-ish fugue). Well, thank you! That's definitely one that I'll be including in things to read through when I'm ... just kind of looking for something new to play not in my regular memorization pile of things.Well now it's getting too tough to decide from all the WTC ones -- I've changed my tune about the C major fugue (no, I would never, not in a million years, ever play the prelude again, sorry Bach! Can't stay awake for that!), and I get a kick out of that one, just stretto piled on stretto. Short and weird little fugue. Took me a few months of just reading it every once in a blue moon for it to sink in, how to make it sound like music instead of some kind of exercise.Yeah, I'm on mixed view about "is the A major WTCI prelude a fugue or not?" I don't really care, you know it's got the subject and kind of a countersubject, some little episodes. I probably just read it in some book somewhere and thought, "Well, close enough!" It's still fun to play, and actually kind of sounds good with the fugue.Supposedly Beethoven used to love that A maj Fugue, maybe the prelude too -- don't know where I heard that.////////I should have included one from Schumann's Vier Fügen, but I can't pick one of them, and they kind of go together as a set to me. Plus, I can only hack through them sight-reading, at a slow pace, so I don't feel that much knowledge about them. Great YouTube somewhere of a very elderly Richter doing them in concert, reading from a score.
Got a working list but this Mozart usually fits up in top 5 along w some Shosty, Kapustin, and few others
I can't deal with the Beethoven String Quartet fugues -- especially the Große Fugue, just makes me angry. To a lesser extent the one from Op. 131. However, from Op. 110 is more my speed, although I can only just hack through it not very well.
The C# minor fugue (may be my favorite in entire WTC) has harmony that is very appealing to me and the 3 sections combine the 3 themes in amazing ways. It is actually not a triple fugue though since it does not have 3 formal expositions.
Grosse fugue: Not sure if hearing this on piano 4 hands will make this any better. You probably already know about this. By memory may be off, but I think Beethoven's publisher had him remove this as a movement from another quartet. It may have been Beethoven's idea to make a 4 hands version to try to get more $, or maybe it was the publishers idea. Not sure. Anyway, this is Beethoven's transcription in case you were not aware.
I'm guessing he meant the Eb Major Prelude, which does include a double fugue built into the prelude itself.
I don't like to pick favourites with music, but two fugues I really like that I can currently think of are the preludes of Bach's English Suites #2 (A minor) and #6 (D minor).
This is a magnificent prelude, one of the greatest in the entire WTC 1 and 2. This prelude is certainly fugue-like and I would even say "double-fugue-like". But I would not call this a fugue. Look at the 2nd subject. There is not a formal exposition here. The first subject is extremely short and is not strictly repeated in each of the 4 voices like you would see in a fugue: tonic-dominant (or subdominant)-tonic-dominant (or subdominant). Do you have a written source that you can give where someone (an expert) says this is a fugue or double fugue?
Willard Palmer, the editor for my edition of WTC says "The prelude is itself a complete prelude and fugue." We've got Philip Goeth, saying "The prelude in Eb major is special in the sense that it hosts a fugue itself, with a more complex architecture than many of the (“actual”) fugues of the WTC. The pair in Eb major thus consists of two fugues, namely a highly sophisticated double fugue within the prelude, which is followed by a jubilant and rather straight forward fugue as the second piece of the pair. " https://www.bachwelltemperedclavier.org/pf-eb-major.htmlAngela Hewitt describes the Eb prelude "It is in three parts: a preamble which improvises around a pattern of semiquavers; a chorale-like fugato introducing a subject that rises in fourths; and a double fugue combining these two musical ideas." (From the liner notes of her recording of WTC I).Or Siglind Bruhn "The third segment of the prelude (from bar 25 onward), and by far its largest, is also polyphonic. It begins with two contrapuntal voices and, as a quick glance through the remainder of the piece reveals, works with this material in many different ways. As there are several definite cadences in related keys and new presentations of the material after these cadences, this segment within the Eb major prelude must be called a "fugue"." https://www-personal.umich.edu/~siglind/wtc-i-07.htmNot sure how many of those folks you'd consider experts, but at least it's clear that it's not totally idiosyncratic to claim that the Eb Prelude includes a double fugue.
Speaking of "sort-of" fugues, like the Amaj Prelude WTCI, any thoughts on the Gigue from the Em Partita? That's my last bugbear to finishing the whole Partita, it's kind of tricky to keep the rhythm correct and light-hearted throughout.
I am generally not a huge fan of Reger, but the fugue from his Telemann Variations has always left me speechless.From the concerto world, there is one contained within D'albert's 2nd piano concerto and it is immense.
Sorry for the late reply, but out of curiosity, what rhythm do you play it at? I personally play it in triple metre, despite the sheet music, which is in duple metre, because, after all, it is a gigue. (If you don't know what I mean, I play the rhythm like this: (this is not me playing).) I personally think it sounds much better that way and somehow have much less trouble expressing what I want.
keeps climbing my fugue chart higher and higher
Topic: Favorite Fugue? 