BWV 870 on:
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Prelude and Fugue in C major,
The uninterrupted flow of notes tends to conceal the fact that the prelude as a whole is carefully constructed. Tovey continues, "with the middle of bar 5, the design begins to develop":
A linking section passes seamlessly through a series of related keys in bars 14 to 19:
The entire passage of bars 5 to 13 is then repeated, with some small alterations, a perfect fourth higher in bars 20 to 28:
The concluding bars follow, with a final cadence in C major, the only decisive point of arrival in the entire piece:
The subject is then followed with entries in the soprano and bass voices. According to Tovey "the Fugue reaches a climax in a spirited Coda":
Tovey asks us to "note Bach's favourite device of cumulative repetition in the tonic" which contributes to "the sonorous vigour of the last eight bars."
"Golden Record / Whats on the Record: Music from Earth"
BWV
The (BWV; ; ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2a ...
870, is a keyboard composition written by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
. It is the first prelude and fugue
{{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot)
The prelude and fugue is a musical form generally consisting of two movements in the same key for solo keyboard. In classical music, the combination of prelude and fugue is one with a long his ...
in the second book of ''The Well-Tempered Clavier
''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time, ''clavier'', meaning keyboard, referred to a variety of in ...
'', a series of 48 preludes and fugue
In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...
s in every major and minor
In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor.
Intervals
Some intervals ma ...
key.
Analysis
Prelude
Unlike the Prelude in C major, BWV 846, that opens book 1 of the ''Well-Tempered Clavier'', which consists mostly of broken chords, this prelude features a continuously flowing sequence of melodic ideas that Cecil Gray (1938, p. 82) says is "very much freer and subtler in form and procedure." Ledbetter (2002, p. 28) compares it to "an organ improvisation". According to Levinson (1997, p. 88), "few pieces of traditional music are more purely processive than this. It develops without break or pause, without arrivals of significance, from beginning to end." Tovey (1951, p. 21) sees this prelude as being "full of the double meanings obtainable on keyboard instruments by holding the notes of a melody so that they grow into sustained chords (bar 3) and, on the other hand, by allowing two separate parts to combine in a melodic sense different from that of either": Tovey, D. F. (1951) ''Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues, Book 2''. London, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
The uninterrupted flow of notes tends to conceal the fact that the prelude as a whole is carefully constructed. Tovey continues, "with the middle of bar 5, the design begins to develop":
A linking section passes seamlessly through a series of related keys in bars 14 to 19:
The entire passage of bars 5 to 13 is then repeated, with some small alterations, a perfect fourth higher in bars 20 to 28:
The concluding bars follow, with a final cadence in C major, the only decisive point of arrival in the entire piece:
Fugue
The fugue is 83 bars long and is written for three voices. It starts with a 4 measure subject in the alto voice:
The subject is then followed with entries in the soprano and bass voices. According to Tovey "the Fugue reaches a climax in a spirited Coda":
Tovey asks us to "note Bach's favourite device of cumulative repetition in the tonic" which contributes to "the sonorous vigour of the last eight bars."
Legacy
A recording byGlenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...
was sent into space in 1977 on the Voyager Golden Record
The Voyager Golden Records are two phonograph records that were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for ...
.Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
References
External links
* {{Authority control The Well-Tempered Clavier Compositions in C major Contents of the Voyager Golden Record