BWV 867

The Prelude and Fugue no. 22 in Bb minor, WTCI, is a real favorite of mine and, by extension, many of my students.  There is some powerful pondering here in the brief, two-page prelude and two-page fugue, both written to benefit from a slow, thoughtful tempo.  Remarkably, the fugue packs five voices into only 75 measures, and concludes at measure 67 with the subject appearing in all five voices within a mere six measures — an indication that Bach wrote a subject that can withstand such condensation, and also that he could fit it together so tightly.  In fact “tight” was one student’s summary of this fugue.  Another student entered a theme festival with this fugue; the theme of the festival required each student to write a brief, 23 or so word description, story, or rumination about their piece, and this student wrote succinctly, “I hear voices” — still one of my favorite epigrams for thinking about fugues.