Recommendations - Easy Bach Fugues?

[bob331]

I'm working on WTC Prelude #1 which is within my abilities. I would also like to try a fugue.

Can anyone recommend any Bach fugues that would be about the same difficulty level as the Prelude?

Thanks in advance.

               Bob

[thierry13]

If only the WTC prelude no.1 is in your abilities, a fugue is not a good idea for the moment. Begin with some little harder preludes before learning a fugue. Well, i don't know all fugues, so i can't tell if there are enough easy for you, but in general, they're too hard.

[bernhard]

I'm working on WTC Prelude #1 which is within my abilities. I would also like to try a fugue.

Can anyone recommend any Bach fugues that would be about the same difficulty level as the Prelude?

Thanks in advance.

               Bob

The easiest fugues in the WTC are arguably

No. 15 (book II)
No. 6
No. 21
No. 10
No. 20 (book II)

(Look here for a more detailed discussion of the relative difficulty of the WTC:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2857.msg25925.html#msg25925 )

However they are all far above the difficulty of prelude 1 (as Thierry said above).

You might want to try one of the fugues in the Wilhelm Friedmann Book (an instructional book that Bach compiled for his son WF). One of the most beautiful and not that difficult is the Little prelude (Praeambulum) in D major BWV 925 (in spite of its name, this prelude is a fugue in all but in name). Interestingly there is some debate in regards to authorship. Many scholars believe this beautiful work to be by CPE Bach, written as an exercise in composition assigned by his father. There are a number of recordings of it (e.g. Glenn Gould for Sony)

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[SteinwayTony]

Sometimes I wonder if Bach was joking by pairing the easiest prelude with one of the most difficult fugues in the first book.  I find that hilarious.

[Vivers]

If you find that the fugues in the WTC are too difficult, you can always try the Fughettas, or the fugues from '18 little preludes and fugues.' The Gigue from French Suite #4 is written in Fugue style, as are the Gigues from Partita 5 and 6, but those are actually a bit harder.

The first Prelude and Fugue I played was #16 in G minor from Book 1, but I'd played French Suites before that.

Personally, I find that the first fugue is the hardest, then after that, you discover how to learn them, how to piece them together, so there isn't that initial period of figuring out how to tackle the project.

[gkatele]

Do you really find the first fugue (C-major) from book 1 the hardest? I find myself flubbing the second fugue more frequently. I dunno why, but it just seems to fall apart more often.

George

[Rockitman]

Thank God.  I have just started my first Bach piece, Prelude and Fugue in Cmajor.  I got the prelude down pretty quickly, but when I got to the Fugue, I said you've got to be kidding.  Heck, I can't figure out which hand is supposed to play half of these notes.   It's nice to know that this is one of the tougher ones.  Haven't even looked at the others yet. 
By the way,  when I hear recordings of the prelude, it is played fairly andante, but I think it sounds much better played allegro.  It just rolls right off the hands. 

[steinwayguy]

Do you really find the first fugue (C-major) from book 1 the hardest? I find myself flubbing the second fugue more frequently. I dunno why, but it just seems to fall apart more often.

George

I wouldn't say C Major is the hardest, but it's certainly harder than the C Minor fugue.