Well Tempered Clavier

[ana]

hullo.  i have to learn a prelude and fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier for auditions, but i have no teacher    , and no idea where to start.  I never played a fugue before, and when i looked at some of them in the book, my brain could not even process the notes.  which one do you recommed as an easy one to start off with, and do you have any practicing techniques for learning this type of complicated music?

any advice would be so much appreciated

-ana   

[BoliverAllmon]

hullo.  i have to learn a prelude and fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier for auditions, but i have no teacher    , and no idea where to start.  I never played a fugue before, and when i looked at some of them in the book, my brain could not even process the notes.  which one do you recommed as an easy one to start off with, and do you have any practicing techniques for learning this type of complicated music?

any advice would be so much appreciated

-ana   

i think no. 6 in d min. book 1 is easy. do  a search here for threads dealing with bach's inventions. i think the same ideas apply.

boliver

[xvimbi]

IMO, learning fugues without a knowledgeable teacher is very difficult, unless you know how to analyze them and, essentially, have played a few fugues before.

How important is the audition to you? If it is very important, it would probably be best to get a teacher, even if it is only for this particular instance. You will most likely compete against lots of people who have teachers, so, you would be at a disadvantage. Having someone who can help you analyze and dissect a fugue and guide you through these rough waters will make learning it so much easier.

Also, IMHO, all the fugues are difficult, but this obviously depends on your skills. The easiest one may not be one that you like. In this case, it would be better to choose a different one that you do like, even if it is harder, because it is important for your motivation that you work on something that you actually like to play. You also need a good recording. Listen carefully to get some idea about the interplay of the voices and all the intricacies that are the hallmarks of fugues. But again, a good teacher will make everything a lot easier.

Good luck!

[gkatele]

hullo.  i have to learn a prelude and fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier for auditions, but i have no teacher    , and no idea where to start.  I never played a fugue before, and when i looked at some of them in the book, my brain could not even process the notes. 

I found that learning the P & F in c minor from book was was enough of a challenge that it REALLY whetted my appetite for more. The saying goes that the hardest fugue is the first one you learn, and I must agree. Not that I'm an expert, by ANY means, but I've found that the book 1 c-minor is approachable, as is the g-minor. The c-major is a jump up, but doable if you take the time to learn the fingering.

Without a teacher, however, any may be a struggle. Listen to recordings so that you get comfortable with the voices, get lots of copies of the score, lots of yellow (pink, blue) markers, dozens of pencils, and dozens of dozens of erasers!

Good luck and keep us posted.

George

[maxy]

cut and paste:

-find fingerings
-identify the different voices, at this stage you should figure out the analysis of the fugue.
-sing each voice, figure out the articulation you want, how you want each voice to sound. 
-play each voice with the appropriate fingering with proper articulation etc.
-start combos let's say it's a 3 voice fugue soprano-tenor-bass:
      sing soprano play bass (with good fingering)
      sing tenor play bass
      continue with other 2 voice combinations

then, 3 voice combinations:

     sing soprano, play tenor and basse... so on and so on...

when that is done, playing the whole ting should be not too hard.

for fugues with 4-5 voices, the process is extremely painful.

That is the "core" work, then comes the work of interpretation.


With that even a monkey should be able to play a fugue... but the discipline required to actually  do all this is huge.

good luck


Just like that, I would say both c minor P and F are good "starters".    Difficulty of P&Fs has been discussed in other topics.  Ask Bernhard.

[mikeyg]

I am working on (kind of) P&F no.2 book 1, and don't find it that challenging.  I haven't looked at the other ones though.

[RHaxby]

I'm looking at WTC Bk2 No 20, and discovered this site, which gives analysis, and a interpretation notes.

https://www-personal.umich.edu/~siglind/text.htm

Regards

[xvimbi]

I'm looking at WTC Bk2 No 20, and discovered this site, which gives analysis, and a interpretation notes.

https://www-personal.umich.edu/~siglind/text.htm

Regards

Excellent find 

I've heard about these books but didn't realize they were available online.

[rlefebvr]

i think no. 6 in d min. book 1 is easy. do  a search here for threads dealing with bach's inventions. i think the same ideas apply.

boliver

Not to disagree, but No 6 D min is very difficult, IMO.

Further, any Fugue is very difficult and will demand alot of time and very very good technic.

[kghayesh]

I have recently played and nearly mastered P&F no.1 in C major, which surprisingly enough is my first fugue!!! Although the prelude was a piece of cake, the fugue was a reall challenge and i really had fun learning all the hard fingering of the 4 voices.

I wanna know if i am some sort of brilliant to play Fugue no.1 in C or it was a mistake to tackle this one as my first fugue??

[iumonito]

Hi Ana,

Here is a thought contrary to the other postings I see you got: whichever fugue you learn (by now you must have chosen one), think of it as one melody accompanied by different chords.  Sometimes the melody is in the middle, too bad, it is still a chord and little more.  Once you know the music in its simplest terms you can occupy yourself with singing the subject along each time it appears.  In some fugues they will overlap (stretto, they call it), again too bad: stick to the first voice and let the others follow.

As for which to choose, my personal favorite is E major book two.  D major book one is also good to start with, but make sure you know what double-dotting is and that you know how the rhythm of a French overture goes (the runs get compressed and start later in the beat than what is literally written, because of the double dotting, but it is hard to describe).

Good luck.