Bach - Fugue n 2 in C min BWV 847 WTC 1 Pianoteq

[carmelopaolucci]

Dear friends,

I get back to studying and playing piano after a long break.
And I decided to start again with Bach, WTC 1, I don't know if you will like this video but I have a lot of fun playing it and I hope you like it. 
Any comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Carmelo

How do I study a Bach prelude or fugue ? First, I analyze the text before I begin to study it on the keyboard. This fugue shows the character of the key from quite another side respect the powerful Prelude. The minor character, intensified by the 3 flats, naturally infuses into the mood a certain earnestness, which, however, in combination with the graceful rhythm and the somewhat obstinate repetition of the C in the melody, gives to the music the character of sober-mindedness rather than of energetic will. The articulation, of itself presenting an alternation between the legato of the melodic intervals and the staccato of the harmonic breaks, increases this impression of perseverance, of quiet diligence (without any haste; Allegro quasi Allegretto). The simple metrical nature of the theme, which occupies 4 measures without elision or insertion of any kind, is favorable to symmetrical construction of periods.
This countersubject never abandons the theme, and is combined with the same, whether as Dux or Comes, excepting where the theme appears as coda over the closing bass note (in the last entry but one of the theme, the 'countersubject is freely divided between the soprano and the middle voice).
The fugue is written in tre in order therefore to make the end of the first development with the Dux in the bass the end also of a second period,
Bach precedes the bass entry by an episode of four measures (in which are worked the opening motives of theme and countersubject), and thus obtains a natural return to the principal key. It should not be overlooked that the decisive close of the Comes in the key of the minor upper-dominant is a cause of the few theme entries (in all — Dux and Comes — only eight).
The (modulating) middle section of the fugue begins with an episode of four measures, in which the opening motive of the theme is thrown to and from by the upper voices, while the bass spins out the opening motive of the countersubject into a running semiquaver passage the period then concludes with the theme given out in the parallel key (E flat) which had been reached at the fourth measure.
The close consists of one period, but extended, first by repetition of the second group (pause on the dominant), and then by an improved cadence by means of a repetition of the closing group. It has already been mentioned that the Dux, given out once again in the soprano (with free additional voices to strengthen the harmonic effect), is appended by way of coda. Both prelude and fugue close in the major.
Now enough of the chatter and I hope you enjoyed my music and what I wanted to convey....