The Prelude in Ab Major from WTCII is another of my favorites — what a happy, content piece, strolling its way through several related and perhaps unrelated keys. The fugue, however, is a bear. Beautiful, yes, but wow, and especially if you play it early in the morning before your coffee as I did today. There are measures where I swear Mr. Bach drags me through three modulations, while my brain tries desperately to resolve where we are going. Sight reading is a combination of excellent visual-spatial skills combined with complete understanding of syntax — you can guess where the composer is going and partially play by “ear” (even though you may not have heard it before). I cannot guess where JSB is going through much of this fugue. It’s delightful and maddening at the same time, a puzzle. Or, maybe, it’s just the lack of caffeine.