Prelude and Fugue in C Minor,

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 ...

847, 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 second

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 first 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 fugues by the composer.

Analysis

Prelude

The prelude is 38 bars long, and consists mostly of a repeating motif. The motif consists of running sixteenth notes in the form of

broken chord A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

s in both hands. Below are the first four bars of the prelude: Bach prelude in c minor BWV847

The prelude continues like so for 33 bars, with different

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

and changes of

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

. The

coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

begins at the 34th bar, where a sudden change of

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and

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

occurs. In the first bar of the coda, an arpeggiated chord is followed by a rapid succession of thirty-second notes. This new motif is repeated twice, after which a succession of sixteenth notes ends the prelude on a

picardy third A Picardy third, (; french: tierce picarde) also known as a Picardy cadence or Tierce de Picardie, is a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section that is either modal or in a minor key. This is achieved by raising the third of the ...

Fugue

The

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 ...

is 31 bars long, and is written for 3 voices. Below is the two measure subject of the fugue, which starts in the middle voice: Just like most fugues in the

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

period, the subject is then repeated in the top voice in the dominant key (G minor), and then repeated once more in the lowest voice, again in the home key. The fugue then continues with a

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photograph ...

, and then another repetition of the subject in the home key. Just like the prelude, the fugue ends with a picardy third.

References

*Bach, Johann Sebastian. "Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C Minor." The Well Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2. Ed. Saul Novak.

External links

*
Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C Minor Sheet Music (PDF)
{{Authority control The Well-Tempered Clavier Compositions in C minor