Meditation in Four Sharps

Today’s P&F no. 4 in c# minor, BWV 873, is a long meditation, challenging once more my wandering thoughts to return to the music found in front of me and emanating from beneath my fingers.  Fortunately for my mind’s concentration, there are plenty of e sharps, f double sharps, a and b sharps (on rising, melodic minor) to keep my mind back on the subject.  The fugue is only three voices, but a meaty subject of 22 notes all in sixteenths, and the time signature is 12/16, and the subject has two sharps, so no focus problems here.  In fact, I was kept rapt as I played the thing at an unrecommended tempo for sight reading, holding on as if riding a bucking bronco.  It’s summer, and my attention has a way of wandering off to never-neverland, and I’m grateful for the discipline on these pages.