Author: Helen Weems

Blog: The Well-Tempered Project

 

Every summer during July and August, I play through the Well-Tempered Clavier Books 1 and 2 (WTCI&II) by Johann Sebastian Bach.  I play one Prelude & Fugue (P&F) per day, resulting in 48 of the 62 days over the two months having a Prelude & Fugue each, with enough time off for vacations.  Today, July 1, 2018, I have begun my seventh journey through the two books.  Sometimes I have started at the last P&F of WTCII and progressed to the first P&F of WTCI.  Sometimes I play Book 2 first, then Book 1.  Sometimes I append the 15 Inventions and Sinfonias to their fellow keyed P&F’s.  This summer I will simply drive through Book 1 and Book 2 in order, without the Inventions and Sinfonias.  It is pure pleasure to begin the journey with the most famous of the Preludes, No. 1 in C BWV 846, and its four-voice fugue, and feel the welcome extended from JSB to me, here today.

 

 

Well-Tempered Day 2

Today’s P&F is WTCI No. 2, C Minor, BWV 847.  Yesterday’s C Major Prelude was the most famous of the 48 P&F’s in both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier, and arguably the most famous fugue is today’s fugue.  My concentration today was not sublime; I found myself thinking about summer plans and was rather surprised to find myself at the end of both the P&F after five or so minutes of not-high-quality sight playing.  This means I missed the lovely, fairly textbook presentation of fugue. Regardless, there is a deep satisfaction in feeling the finger choices in my Henle Urtext Edition (Hans-Martin Theopold did these fingerings).  I think Bach provides nice yoga for the hands and, if one is mentally available, the mind.

Yesterday’s post was truncated by the advancing hour, and my desperate attempts to learn how to use my website to make these posts and have them appear where I want (still a work in progress).  Wonderful thoughts had come to mind as I played yesterday’s P&F in C Major; memories in particular of two dear adult students, now both deceased, who loved Bach so very much.  Ellen commented that the famous Prelude in C was always appropriate, and she strived to keep it in her hands for lunches with friends, funerals, weddings, christenings.  Although she was not a professional pianist, she shared her efforts with her loved ones, and she loved this Prelude for its versatility and utility.  Carol was learning the A Minor Invention, and she decided to practice it 100 times between lessons.  She found it remarkable that, regardless of how many repetitions, she never tired of it, whereas she quickly grew weary of, say, Satie.  She rallied one morning near the end to sit at her piano a final time and play her invention.  As I played yesterday’s C Major P&F, I mused on the “mystic, sweet communion” one enjoys with those who have moved on to bigger things when one plays the same music.  As Carol used to say, “… to be continued…” and that’s what I felt yesterday; the continuation of a worthwhile conversation.

 

 

BWV 848 – Day 3

Another day, another P&F, this one in the mind-grabbing key of C# Major — 7 sharps.  Bach requires my busy, unkempt mind to concentrate on what I’m playing, and especially to resolve the plethora of double sharps, one of which is visible in the image above (the x).  The fugue is in three voices, a welcome simplification of the form except for the complex key signature and it’s four page length. JSB always throws a wrench into what could be an easy P&F.  If a P&F is in an easy key signature, he makes it extra long and puts the fugue into four or more voices; if only a three voice fugue, the key signature is a humdinger.  Piano teachers mull and agonize such things when choosing a P&F for a student.

I enjoy marking the appearance of the subjects in my fugues, like a crazy crossword puzzle to keep me busy for the next 30 years.  I think JSB made a joke at the end of this fugue — the iterations of the subject are rather faithful throughout, but he bends the subject mightily for this last iteration (one could say it’s not really an iteration), and offers the notable eighth-note sixth figure at the end of the subject clearly, especially emphasized by the bar line.  Every time I play this long fugue, I hear Mr. Bach laugh softly on those two notes, marked in my score above for your enjoyment, as well.

 

 

c# minor on July 4

Seems like something at least in a major key should show up for the Fourth of July, but when going in Bach’s order of the WTCI — and beginning a project like this on July 1 — one ends up in a morose but beautiful P&F for the national holiday.  Both Prelude and Fugue are contemplative, but the fugue requires considerable effort — it is a double fugue in five voices, and four pages long.  And yet I find it one of the easier fugues to read through — there is something intuitive for me regarding the harmonies that result in organization of the voices.  Stunning piece, and plenty of time during a holiday for getting through it — thanks, JSB!

 

 

Another Day . . .

Welcome to Day 5 of the Well-Tempered Project, and the sheer joy of BWV 850, P&F in D Major from WTCI.  I invite you to join me in playing through the WTC this summer.  It is a useful discipline.  So, first: get the music.

Dust off that old copy foisted upon you by your EVIL PIANO TEACHER.  Or if you never acquired a copy of the WTC, here is a link to Book 1: (scroll through the sound files and the “autograph” to the first usable pdf — the Czerny edition — and go through the safe and free process of downloading the pdf file.  IMSLP is a safe and legal repository of pdf’ed music in the public domain).  Or, for the luxury version of all this, drive to your local music store and pick up a lovely Henle edition of WTCI, with it’s yellow paper and stroke-able blue cover.

Now you are ready to join me on this summer meditation.  Pianist and wonderful music writer Jeremy Denk wrote in the most sublime article ever written about Bach:  “So I say, in all seriousness, if you don’t play an instrument, take one up; take lessons; make the time. After a while, set some Bach on the music stand and play it yourself. Look at the notes on the page, envision the relationships between them. Don’t just press play. Don’t be afraid; we all live too much in fear and awe of the perfectly edited recordings around us. No matter how halting, how un-transcendent, your technique is, I promise that it may be the best Bach you will ever hear.”

 

 

 

d minor P&F No. 6 WTCI

Today is soggy; miserably humid paired with uninspiring cloudy warmth.  A moderate two mile walk in the shade resulted in a sweat-soaking.  Enter the P&F in d minor.  The nice thing about Bach is that you can play his music slow or fast, and it works both ways, although some interpretations are better than others.  This prelude works best at a crisp clip, perhaps a little less crisp on the fugue to relish the indicated turns.  However, I am sight reading and feeling moistly uncomfortable, so I slogged through at too slow a tempo, oozing into the final picardy third of the fugue.  Life is not always exciting.

 

 

Glorious BWV 852

This is the perfect summer sky out my back door.  Yesterday’s slothful doldrums have given way to low humidity, clear skies, and temperatures in the 60s and 70s.  There are songs of frogs, birds, cicadas, a nap stolen on a deck chair, lazy lawn mowers in the distance.  The day calls for shrimp salad and chardonnay, long bicycle rides, and a glorious major-key P&F by Bach.  All have been provided, especially the Eb Major P&F from WTCI, four wonderful pages of building nobility in the prelude which is preluded itself by nine measures of standard Bach chordal progression built on increasingly frenetic scalar material, followed by slow, quarter note nobility, slowly made more complex by the return of scalar development, and followed by a three voice fugue which, again, the word “noble” just keeps returning and returning to improve my own humanity.  Am I repeating myself?  Just get the thing out and play it for yourself.  If the weather is perfect (or even if it isn’t), you’ll know what I’m banging on about here.

 

 

Six Flats Six Sharps

Welcome to Day 8, the P&F in Gb minor/F# minor WTCI.  Difficult no matter how you slice it up.  Why two key signatures?  These pieces were written to show off “well-tempered tuning,” a new technique. Gb minor and F# minor would have been, I understand, considered slightly different, although they are enharmonic (the same keys exactly) on modern keyboards.  The point of the entire WTCI was to show that you could play the entire book in all 24 keys without re-tuning your harpsichord, or whatever your preferred keyboard was.  Still, he keeps the F# Major P&F in one key.  Why abuse the keyboardist for the minor key?  I’m left with this conclusion: JSB had a perverse streak, or he was punishing one of his students.  Or both.

 

 

Why not E major?

Why have I never taught the E major P&F from WTCI?   What a gorgeous, light piece.  After playing it through today I am determined to get one of my students to learn it.  Only four pages for both pieces, only three voices in the fugue, no other elimination factors like long trills.  Just beautiful, sunlit simplicity.  This 9th P&F was played indeed on July 9, but somehow the day slipped into July 10 before writing this, just after midnight.

 

 

 

Day 10 of the Project

So again today Bach challenges my summation of easy keys and hard music: Key of e minor (only one sharp in key signature), and only a two voice fugue, the only fugue in WTCI&II with less than three parts.  And why is this not really an invention but a fugue?  Probably the faithful re-iteration of the subject makes it fugue, but it’s summer and I’m too relaxed for research.  The prelude feels very easy — finger-y but easy — right up until the surprise Presto, at which point you’re supposed to play like a crazed animal for two more pages, which brings memories of a beloved former student getting stuck six measures before the end of the prelude and (horrors!) starting OVER.  The audience of piano students, teachers and families groaned knowingly as student re-started only to become hopelessly entangled.  My student stopped mid-confusion, rose from the bench, bowed, and mourned.  Later, the student took first at the state competition with this prelude as one of the pieces.  I recall the student’s mastery of a light, even touch throughout the prelude, as I plod my own fingers through the Presto today.

 

 

F Major Prelude and Fugue WTCI

I began today’s P&F all excited to play one of my favorites, until I noticed I had the wrong book (WTCII). Perhaps one isn’t supposed to have such favorites where a music God like Bach is concerned, but I truly love the F major P&F in the second book, and I’m really looking forward to August 11 when that one gets played.  For whatever reason, even though I play through this book every year, the WTCI F Major prelude always feels like a surprise that I’ve never heard, almost like a Hanon warm up rather than a statement.  Oof!  In ten years I’ll look back at today thoughts and be disgusted, I’m sure.

 

 

F Minor BWV 857

Today’s lovely P&F in F Minor is one I have taught, and I especially love the fugue.  (I am noticing that, increasingly, the exciting thing for me is the fugue — am I turning into Glenn Gould?)  This is a contemplative P&F, but as you are chumming through the third page of the fugue, this moment comes upon you:

 

Suddenly, an Eb royal procession emerges wholesale, repeated next measure in c minor, then Ab.  Then a mysteriously sad G major resolution, and back to the fugue.

I always — always — begin this fugue twice as fast as I intend to, and have to readjust my tempo at the soprano’s entrance for the second statement.  Raise your hand if you do the same thing.

 

 

Day 13: My Old F# Major P&F

The P&F in F# Major, No. 13, was the only P&F I performed in college.  My teacher at the time was Luis Gonzalez Rojas, a miniature (some 5’1″) tyrant of an artist, and exactly the teacher I needed when I entered college.  Mr. Rojas spoke with an outrageous Cuban accent (milked for effect, I’m sure), walked with a limp from extreme spinal arthritis, and played elegantly and with the most beautiful, pearly tone I had ever heard.  He held inviolable opinions about every piece, including this P&F, the prelude of which he had me play a left hand e instead of the Urtext’s d# in measure 10.  He also required me to repeat all right hand trills in the left hand where the statement was the same, even if the score did not ask for it, although whether this was for artistic or pedagogical reasons I’ll never know.  Mr. Rojas’ congestive heart failure finally caught up with him at the too-early age of 75 while walking his dogs just before Christmas, 2008.  Precious little can be found of him online, due to the era and his professionally quiet life near Branson, Missouri, during the last forty or so years of his life.  (Quiet does not describe the impact he had on his community, where he was celebrated for his beautiful playing and larger-than-life personality.)  I cherish the cd I have of his playing, and the few photos.

This image is taken from one of his promotional photos.  You can see the tyrant in him, and the artist.

 

 

Bastille Day, BWV 859

A favorite P&F, today’s F# minor from WTCI.  This is one of those P&F’s that make the whole Well-Tempered Project worthwhile.  The fugue possesses a quiet intensity that makes me think better thoughts, puts my mind in order.  No wonder the fugue was featured on “32 Short Films about Glenn Gould,” presented in a meditative and strangely appropriate cartoon of rolling balls that divide and re-join.

 

 

Easy Key Signature, Funky Fugue

The P&F No. 15 in G Major, BWV 860.  Who wouldn’t want to learn a P&F in G?  Anyone not wanting to memorize a four-page fugue. The prelude is quite attainable, followed by a special fugue from which I’ve shielded my students unfairly.  The fugue’s subject is four measures and 30 notes long, a seriously involved fugue.  (When I had to produce a fugue in college, I made sure to make it short and trite, the easier to build it.)  But this subject is exciting, and Bach presents it several times upside down (intervals inverted) — fun!  I have heard that Bach also presented some fugues backward, but I’ve yet to find a backward subject (last note first, etc) in my crazy crossword project of finding all Bach’s subjects hidden in WTCI&II.  Given the ease of the prelude and the satisfying challenge of the fugue, I can think of several students who should give this P&F in G a fling.

 

 

G minor Textbook P&F

The 16th P&F of WTCI by Bach is one of the most formulaic of the 48.  The prelude has some imitative material, but it is primarily a comforting, wistful and evocative piece, beautiful to hear or play.  The fugue maintains the same thoughtful melancholy but in a standard fugue format, only slightly varying the subject with each iteration, and most of the time varying it not at all — a seamlessly sewn together miniature masterpiece.  Easy key signature, the four voices of the fugue present no anxious convolutions for the fingers, absolutely playable and satisfying to the ear.  The images above are from Jean Pierre Lecaudey’s website, and he has done a nice job of marking the subjects (as have all us pianists in theory class).  You can check out his entire article — and test your French — here.

At the rate this project is moving, I’ll be done with both books before August is half over!  Time for a fermata in the project; see you in a few days.

 

 

Back to Bach

Greetings from a week’s fermata.  I visited, among others, a beloved cousin in Missouri who has an old, beautiful Knabe upright.  Of course, I have a copy of the WTC Books I&II in my Kindle app (doesn’t everyone?) so Mr. Bach is with me everywhere.  I plopped down on the old bench after a sumptuous dinner and gave her piano’s perfectly preserved ivories a squinty-eyed iPhone-screen reading of the first Prelude in C of the WTCI, which began this blog effort back (Bach) on July 1.  Cousin sat next to me, shoulder to shoulder, watching me lean and squint at the tiny notes on the small screen, listening to this beautiful piece on her lovely old treasure.  This is what this music is for — this, and the grand concert stage, and the solo drive across the countryside, and a quiet moment alone in one’s own piano room, and the impromptu sharing with friends and family.

Today I played the P&F No. 17 in Ab major, something of an invention of a prelude really, and a rather difficult four voice fugue with only seven notes for a subject, a statement all in eighth notes.  Ignore the fingering at your peril — it’s a finger-twister.  I suffered many starts and stops, some caused by my optimistic tempo.  Regardless the stumbles, it is always good to get back to Bach.  Cheers.

 

 

Serious and Important Music

Offered here for your approval is my first Instagram post, the Photo of the Month for August, and today’s seriousness for BWV 863, the P&F No. 18 in G# minor, a very serious and beautiful P&F in five sharps with lots and lots of double sharps in case your mind wanders.  The photograph is of today’s very important studio event, the infamous Rita’s Rep Class, whereby a very few children who are actually not traveling, nor attending camp nor driver’s ed, arrive on a Wednesday morning to play piano for each other, scream out some triad spellings and other rot and, upon satisfying their EVIL PIANO TEACHER, are allowed to stuff themselves (at 10am no less) with Rita’s Italian Ice which has been procured and frozen (Rita’s doesn’t bother to open around here until noon, so advance planning is required).  To plump up the event, I told them for what the Well Tempered Clavier was written, and then played them today’s offering.  What’s that you say, “For what WAS it written?”  Oof, a big question, to be answered before the summer is out.  Stay tuned.

As for the P&F in question, it is indeed a weighty affair, one of Bach’s more meditative subjects for the fugue.  Gorgeous.  Get thee hence to youtube and listen to someone reputable play it (Gould, Tureck, Schiff).  It is even more special than Rita’s Italian Ice.

 

 

A Major for July 26

Today’s P&F is the cheerful and memorable A major Prelude, followed by four pages of three voiced-fugue possessed of an unusual subject rising in fourths.  It seems like I should be able to find a retrograde or inverted subject somewhere in all four pages of the fugue, and, that with the fourths, it should be easy to locate.  But no, all the subjects I have marked rise resolutely in fourths, not the thirds which would indicate an inverted subject.  Perhaps someone out there has found a prized retrograde subject.  I’ve still never found one in the entire WTC.

 

 

 

Six Pages of Fugue

Welcome to P&F 20 from WTCI, confirming my theory that Bach reserved some of his most challenging music for the easier key signatures in the WTC.  Today’s P&F is in the key of A minor, no flats or sharps.  This is the longest fugue with which I am familiar in both books of WTC: six pages.  I cannot find a second subject, so remarkably Bach kept the idea moving along with one very long subject of 31 notes (see Easy Key Signature, Funky Fugue for another discussion of a 30 note fugue subject in an easy key signature).  Happily, the fugue has plenty of inverted subject statements along the way, a feature that never fails to delight me.  It’s a good ride, if lengthy.

 

 

Well known (and loved) Bb Major

Now here is a P&F I know well, and have taught several times, and have extensive notes not only from teaching but also a master class in which a student played.  It’s a grand selection for students setting out on the Well Tempered Clavier: bravura and exciting (and important-sounding) without being too difficult, not a bad key signature, 3 voice fugue with clear sections, and neither prelude nor fugue exceeds two pages.  A gift from Bach to your student!  Pictured is the opening measures of the prelude with years of scrawled notes competing for the music notes.  One really nice thing to point out to students (and ourselves in a quiet moment): Prelude’s measures 11 and 12 have a descending scalar passage that begins in C harmonic minor, then passes into C major, then C natural minor, and finally (breaking the rule of what melodic minor is) C melodic minor with the lowered sixth and seventh in the descending pattern (it’s the ascending pattern when we play scales, but then, who is going to wake up JSB and correct him).  Fun to hear, fun to play, fun to understand.  Cheers.

 

 

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.

 

 

July 30, 2018

Today’s P&F is in B major, five sharps.  True to my theory regarding difficulty versus key signature, both the prelude and its fugue are two pages each, and not too complex.  The only other thing I can say on this distracting day is that playing this provided me with the brief concentration that I needed to feel organized, if only for about 5 minutes of playing.  This is what the project is often about — pulling my brain’s threads together.

End of WTCI!

Hooray!  I am at the end of the Well Tempered Clavier Book I, and tomorrow, August 1, I will begin WTCII.

And what an ending to the book — the P&F in B minor, BWV 869, a view of the 20th century, courtesy of Mr. Bach in 1722.  The Prelude shows off a real, straight ahead jazz walking bass, and in the Fugue I count two subjects (a double fugue), the main one made out of all twelve tones used in western music (all the unique black and white keys on a piano), making Schoenberg and his Twelve Tone School sound almost wistfully old fashioned.  After the second iteration of the subject, there is this nice feature in the upper voice immediately that I am calling the second subject, and it comes back verbatim in multiple keys, so that’s my argument for the double fugue.  Further, this fugue has several instances of sequence — beautiful phrases that repeat in neighboring patterns.  It’s another six-page fugue (it pays to have reinforced oneself with some caffeine) and it is glorious.

The image is of the beginning of the whole book, where I keep my summary of time periods during which I’ve read through the WTCI.  It is always rewarding to write in the latest entry, as I did today.

 

 

August 1, Prelude and Fugue 1 (WTCII)

Today I start the Well Tempered Clavier Book II, written some twenty years after the first book, and possessing an entirely different spirit.  The first book ends with such keen foresight into music of the twentieth century, but what makes the second book so unique is a romantic quality that I find hard to describe adequately.  Maybe during this discipline of playing and writing, I’ll find the description I want for this book.  Today’s P&F in C major, BWV 870, is a joyful romp.   The fugue is absolutely standard to Bach’s form, but just so playful, and an ear worm at that.  I’ll be hearing this in my head for days.

 

 

 

BWV 871

I am writing today’s post at the piano, because after mentally struggling through this C minor fugue, I don’t have the energy to go to a desk and I feel the need to see the piano keys to write.  Why is this fugue so hard?  One answer could be that with our umpteenth day of rainy dark weather, one finds many things difficult.  Another is that C minor is a relatively easy key, but in keeping with my theory regarding Bach’s Hard-Key Easy-Fugue and vice versa, this fugue was a bear.  I find it hard to hear where it’s going, with sharp key turns that are not set up with obvious leading notes or chords.  It ends on a minor chord (many of Bach’s minor pieces end with a “picardy third” into the parallel (or same-key) major for the last chord).  The prelude wasn’t easy either, but most of that was a fingering issue, not complexity.  Setting up the heavy minor of the fugue, the prelude also ended on a minor chord — a dark piece, for a dark day.

 

 

C# Major P&F — Beautiful Challenge

Here remains a prelude that I still prefer to it’s fugue, even in my contrapuntally-biased old age.  How I love this prelude!  I’ve taught it to a couple of wonderfully talented students, both of whom struggled with the voicing — a delicate, fluttering affair of great beauty, easily squashed by heavy, un-careful playing.  Which line to bring out:  the after-beat top voice?  the on-the-beat and weightier bass note? the last note of the middle wiggly part?  I vary the voicing by measure almost, trying to find something that constantly tickles the ear into the “ooohhhhmmm” qualities of this wondrous piece.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the fugue, and much to love — but it is overshadowed by the spectacular prelude which concludes by breaking into an exciting “alleluia” — or at least, that’s my opinion, man.

I think the finest version of this prelude (and its fugue) I have heard was recorded by my friend, Stephen Prutsman.  Tragically, you must buy his album — from him, personally — to hear it, which is a travesty.  The image above is of his album of the WTCII, which has kept me company across many road trips  through the Midwest.  Someday his recording of the WTCII will be ubiquitous, and righteousness will rain down like manna upon us all.  In the meantime, Edwin Fischer played  this Prelude and Fugue superbly back in the 40s, and you can YouTube his recording easily.

Perversely, I read through this Prelude on August 3 — on schedule — but due to the sheer enjoyment I get from playing it, I just now (on the 6th) realize I didn’t blog about it!  Happily I can make WordPress think I wrote this on August 3rd, and keep the WTC II in order.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Busy Sunday, Busy Prelude & Fugue

August 5: A former piano student played the organ at church, so it was an early morning.  Then, choir folders needed their music switched for the upcoming season, a set of rehearsal tracks needed recording, a choir schedule needed typing, and of course, our annual potluck choir rehearsal was this evening so I also had to cook food to take to the host’s house and run the rehearsal.  Today’s cheerful P&F in D major reflects the hurry of the day, with rising sixteenth notes followed by eighth note triplets, four pages of running, followed by a fugue subject with an insistent repeating note that is densely patterned throughout.  It was nice to get lost in this, and to enjoy the elegant simplicity of a Bach resolution at the end of all the effort.  If only life imitated art.

 

 

D Minor, WTCII

Thank goodness for a P&F I know well, No. 6 in D Minor.  It’s interesting to me that D minor is a popular P&F for students regardless whether they are playing out of WTCI or II — both are attainable and enjoyable.  What I notice to my chagrin is that I get stuck and have to slow down at the exact same points my students must slow down.  This is humbling, and perhaps good for one’s soul, if not one’s ego.

 

 

Eb Major Joy

This P&F in Eb Major, (BWV 876, WTCII) is yet another joy to work through.  Notably, JSB adds some of his Suspensions in this prelude, non-harmonic tones that are written in this case as grace notes, which carry the melody of the previous measure forward some undetermined period of time, and then resolve off the beat onto the new note supplemented with the new chord.  This moment of delayed gratification at the beginning of two of the first four measures sets up our ears to relish the anticipated harmony.  In fact, I find it hard not to call them Anticipations, but that’s a slightly different type of non-harmonic tone — a different story entirely.

 

 

Six Sharps, Six Pages, All Thumbs

My thoughts regarding Easy-Key Hard-Fugue went out the window again today, along with my confidence in reading Bach.  Six sharps — and written in minor, to boot; more 32nd notes and double sharps that I can keep up with; seemingly pages and pages of notes; and the fugue in four voices.  Worse, it was a busy day, so no time to re-play anything and try to make it palatable.  This is the first time during this summer’s WTC Project that I have followed up by listening to a great pianist play the P&F — to see what the heck it’s supposed to sound like.  Of course I turned to my friend Stephen Prutsman’s recording of the WTCII (again I regret that it is not available on Amazon), and voila! — oh so THAT’S how it’s supposed to sound.  If this were 18th century Germany, and I was reading alone in my parlor, I would not be able to tap the skill of a great pianist on my stereo or even phone.  But then, I wouldn’t be blogging about my experience, either, so maybe I would have the time to play it several times.  Hmm.  The luddite piano teacher needs to meditate on this.

 

 

Bach in August

It’s hot, and I appreciate the coolness of this P&F in E major from WTCII.  The first thing that strikes me as I play through it is the presentation of sonata form, which I’ve given little thought to until now.  When did Bach start presenting music in what would become sonata form?  On July 31 I wrote about the forward-looking features of both the last Prelude and the Fugue of WTCI in B minor.  I missed the fact that Prelude No. 24 WTCI is written in two sections, with complete cadences and repeat signs, the first section ending in the dominant key (F# major), the second section beginning in F# minor (still the v, although minor) and ending appropriately back in the tonic of B minor.  This overall I-V-I quality, with definite markers in the center like cadences and repeat signs, marks the sonata form.  I’ve read that Bach can be considered the “father” of sonata form.  What didn’t this guy accomplish?

 

 

OMG JSB!

I do believe that the Fugue no. 10 in e minor, BWV 879, WTCII, has a whopping 48 note subject spanning 7 measures.  It just keeps going and going.  This is a 3 voice fugue (thank goodness it’s not more!) and of course takes 4 pages to play because each iteration takes MEASURES to get through.  And the Prelude?  Two parts, first part’s cadence ending on the dominant.  Somewhere between today and the end of this project, I am going to count how many times JSB puts the Prelude into an early sonata form in WTCII.  Already at least three times, yet WTCI only had this feature in the last prelude of the set of 24.

 

 

Lushness — F Major WTCII

Back on July 11, I wrote that I could hardly wait for August 11, when P&F no. 11 in F Major WTCII would come up on my list, and today it came around.  What a gorgeous Prelude, with its supreme difficulty of holding down some of the descending notes, which result in a chord in so many of the measures.  What would JSB have been thinking about when he wrote such a romantic prelude?  His wife?  A particularly golden sunlit day, and musical birdsongs on his way into the cathedral that day?  The piece feels like an “exhale.”  The three voice energetic fugue is nice, also, and is the only counter I can imagine to this luxurious prelude.

 

 

Bach to F

Welcome to BWV 881, F minor from WTCII.  In WTCII, both the F major and F minor P&F’s are a couple of gems.  This P&F in particular looks forward to the classical era; I think Mozart must have been channeling Bach in his Sonata in F major K. 332.  The use of sequence, especially in the fugue, is perfect.  The prelude has such a strong, mysterious character.  In spite of the four flats, this is accessible sight reading.  Give it a play through; you’ll be delighted.

The photo above is also about Bach in F minor, albeit 857 from WTCI.  I had the pleasure of hearing this recently graduated student play the WTCI F minor Prelude today at my church’s organ. She was the paid substitute organist for much of the summer.  It’s very rewarding to go to church and hear the organ as you get out of your car and think, “that’s my protégé!”  The priest gave her a blessing for heading off to college next week.  A sweet moment for all of us.

 

 

Sequences

It’s the F# Major P&F of the WTCII, and once again JSB is showcasing a favorite feature of mine that appears repeatedly in WTCII — sequence.  The Prelude is a light, delicate piece, seemingly with wings that let this music lift and hover off the ground.  Once finished counting (fiercely) and contending with plenty of sharps and double sharps, one begins the Fugue, which I find hard to perceive until it becomes complete with all three voices, and then it gels into a significant statement, decorated with those beautiful sequences.  Lots of work to play, and completely worth it.

 

 

Ties, and the Observing of Them

One may ask, understandably, if I’m really playing each and every one of these P&F’s this summer.  Yes, I am; every note, every sharp and double sharp, every trill.  Just not every tie.  Oh, how I wish I were a good enough sight reader to get the ties as well, but so many of them are dropped before their time, some are repeated upon the concluding note of the tie, oof!  The beauty of Bach so often is deepened by the proper observation of the ties, and I cringe every time I notice I’m blowing them off.  (Some legalese for my students: you are not allowed ever to blow off any of your ties in your pieces!)

Case in point is today, August 14, with the P&F no. 14 in F# minor, BWV 883.  There are plenty of ties in the prelude, amongst the other rhythmic challenges of this beautiful, difficult piece (quads, triplets, duples, syncopations, sometimes all in one measure and underscored with, of course, a surreptitious tie).  But the fugue!  A double fugue by my count, three voices, four pages, and the subject is a rhythmic challenge/delight starting on rests, entering on “and” with eighths and immediately a TIE to the next measure’s “and” of 1 on sixteenths followed by another TIE mid measure followed by ANOTHER TIE into the next measure and resolving with a half note trill.  If you are still counting effectively by then, you are good.  It’s all countered with a second subject of two solid measures of sixteenths!  How does it sound?  Unforgettable and energizing, resolving to an ambiguous and perfect unison on the tonic.  Youtube it; it is wonderful.

 

 

Hanon Dreams of Bach

Within a few short measures, the G Major P&F from WTCII leaps with exuberance from the static page into your soul.  I wrote of a prelude in WTCI that put me in mind of Hanon. Today’s prelude has unmistakable exercise qualities, but elevated into the heavenly stratosphere by JSB. The fugue would also make a fine technical study if one weren’t humming along and becoming emotionally engaged in the glory of this uplifting P&F.  Next time I feel in need of Hanon, I will come here first.

 

 

G minor P&F: WTCII

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In December 1990, a film winged its way to me through the Ozark atmosphere to my parents’ house in a village in Southwest Missouri during a winter break from my Peabody education.  It was a documentary of the 1990 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, directed by Bill Fertik, and featuring two of my Peabody classmates; Kevin Kenner (who took 3rd in the Piano Competition) and Stephen Prutsman (who took fourth, but was the audience favorite).  I knew the documentary was going to be released that day on PBS, and I made a contraband copy of it on my parents’ VCR which included the terrible fidelity of the long-distance Arkansas Public Television over-the-air broadcast.  Snowy and discolored is one word to describe the results, nearly un-viewable is another.  Regardless, I kept this tape for years, showing it to my students for Movie Nights, not only because of the presence of my colleagues, but also the images from the crumbling Soviet Union and the immediate aftermath.  Five years ago, I found Bill Fertik’s email address online and wrote him; he actually answered and gave me the link to his Vimeo channel and instructed me how to download a digital copy, suitable for burning to DVD.  What a gift!  The snowy, crazy-striped videotape is gone, and beautiful digital images of that documentary now appear on my TV.  The above image is taken from the film.

At the beginning of the documentary, a pianist describes the scene where all 118 initial piano contestants must play the same Prelude and Fugue to start the competition: “Round One, all together now, let’s see what happens.”  As it happens, the Prelude and Fugue is today’s Prelude and Fugue.   And then you watch, in tranches, many of those 118 pianists playing this Fugue as if as one.  It is a riveting beginning to a spellbinding documentary.  You can watch the documentary here.

 

 

Coffee

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.

 

 

 

Tour de Force

Another P&F that I adore but can barely read through: the P&F in G# minor, WTCII. What skill Bach displayed in layering sequences and modulations and themes in a sonata form, and keeping the listener (or reader in today’s case) spellbound. I am frustrated only in my inability to accommodate the key signature and the modulated double sharps instantly. The fugue is a grand, masterful statement in three voices, four pages. I find it nearly easier to read than the prelude.

I am staying today with a dear friend, and playing on her beautiful old Steinway A, from her Henle edition of WTCII, where (happily) she has lightly penciled in some of the more challenging sustained accidentals. And some fingerings. And arrows to the fugue subject statements. What a delight.

 

 

 

888

BWV 888, the P&F in A major for WTCII, got played today after a six-hour drive and was not absorbed as well as I would like.  Still, there is the steady pleasure of feeling the moving voices under my fingers, the satisfaction of resolving the harmonies, counting the rhythms and observing the fingerings. I hope those reading these posts are poking through these magnificent little pieces, too.

I just noticed that all the P&F’s for WTC I & II have BWV numbers in the 800s.  How have I missed this little detail?  It means that today’s P&F is the only one in the Well Tempered Clavier that has three repeated numbers — 888.  BWV stands for Bach Werke Verzeichnis — Bach Works Catalogue.  An organized person named Wolfgang Schmieder put the catalogue together in the 1950s.  Perhaps “Wolfgang Schmieder Day” is in order to celebrate the BWV, so helpful for keeping all us Bach fans straight.
 

P&F XX WTCII

The first thing that came to my mind today:  Which is the fugue? The theme of the prelude, or the fugue proper?  Today’s prelude sounds for all the world like a fugue, but the eighth note stepwise accompaniment is too stable to make this a proper counterpoint.  Still, there is inversion of the theme, passing the theme between voices, and playing it in different keys.  Perhaps JSB thought to himself, “yeah, close to a fugue but no cigar; let’s make it a prelude.”  And the chromaticism — fasten your seatbelts.  It appears to end the first section in the dominant, in order to render this early sonata form, but my ear isn’t sure that the midpoint really gets all the way to E.  The fugue continues to mess with us — the subject stops after four notes, only to take off double speed with the same idea before it veers into what I call filler material — where does the subject end?  One has to see how he “ends” the subject in other voices to form an opinion on what is subject and what isn’t.  I think an “easy” key of A minor (no flats no sharps) encouraged JSB to pull our tails.

 

 

Quality Plagiarism

Mr. Bach must have been thinking about a fugue from the previous WTCI (no. 14 in f# minor) when he wrote today’s fugue in Bb Major (no. 21) for the WTCII.  The subject of today’s fugue includes a descending repeated note pattern for a couple of measures (circled in the uppermost score in the image), which is featured very similarly in the earlier fugue (circled in the lower score) although not as the subject, but the countersubject.  Did he think about this countersubject for twenty years between the two books, and finally decide it was time to make that lovely line a proper subject?

It’s mysterious to me that every time I play today’s P&F in Bb, it’s as though I’ve never heard nor played it before — it just doesn’t stay with me, whereas once I hear or play the F# Minor P&F from WTCI, I can’t get it out of my head for days.  I feel a little sheepish admitting such a strong preference for certain P&F’s, but there it is.  Some summer of the future I will play today’s P&F and say to myself, “Ah!  This one!  I remember it!.”  I hope.

 

 

Hatchet Job

I just finished playing the P&F no. 22 in Bb minor, BWV 891, from WTCII.  Readers may recall that I adore the P&F no. 22 in Bb minor from WTCI.

Not so much 22 from WTCII.  Is it Bach or is it me?  (Maybe don’t answer that.)  These are two long pieces — both the prelude and the fugue are four pages, and they go on.  And on.  I can’t catch the musical idea.  Where is the compelling line?  Why don’t I remember anyone playing this, including me?  By the time I pulled into the ending — which nicely stated the subject neatly in all four voices in four measures (see the similar feat in 22 from WTCI, but in five voices, and written so tenderly and affectingly) –thinking, yes, but what?  Where did this prelude and/or fugue take me?

Why didn’t Bach just stand up and say, whoa, enough of that one, let’s go have lunch.

 

 

The Fugal Limit

Today’s post is the welcome B major P&F no. 23 after yesterday’s slog through no. 22.  The delightful and easily understandable Prelude is followed by the fugue’s wild subject — the craziest I can recall JSB writing.  It seems he was investigating the limits of a fugue’s subject for development.  This subject, marked in the score above, stretches an octave, outlines an unusually complex harmony, and bounces within the octave like a hyper two-year-old.  The result is that when new statements of the subject come up against countersubjects, they cross each other repeatedly, and before the fourth voice is introduced you already have a real puzzle on your hands.  Which note goes with which line?   What happened to the subject?  And which note am I supposed to be holding for a duration?  Reading through this will keep your mind off the unpleasant subjects which seem to fill the corners of modern life;  mastering it would be a serious task.

 

 

P&FXXIV – 8/24 – Fini

Today is the last day of this blog and my 8th annual journey through Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Books I & II.  I began Book I on July 1, and finished on July 31; I began Book II on August 1 and played through without break, finishing the 24th Prelude and Fugue in B minor today, August 24, 2018.  And what a conclusion: Bach invents a fandango-like line which develops into a rich, meaty Prelude.  With dramatic pauses and themes that walk and turn in counterpoint, this Prelude tells a story that keeps the listener/player rapt, ending darkly but energetically in the minor. The Fugue subject is forthright with powerful octave punctuations, reiterated clearly throughout. Bach muses into harmonies that would be plumbed by Beethoven a century later, and drives into the most definitive and powerful ending of WTCI&II.  That last D#, powering the final chord into major after a suspension, is an explosive statement.  You feel it in your whole body, a fitting conclusion for the titanic two-book collection.  It makes me reflect that I sell my summer short when I change the playing order to entertain myself.  The most magnificent journey begins with P&F I WTCI and ends with P&F XIV WTCII.

I blogged some questions over the summer that deserve answers.  For what did Bach write Book I?  It was the world’s best infomercial, in this case to promote a new keyboard tuning (well-tempered tuning) that allowed multiple unrelated keys to be played without re-tuning.  (For what did he write book 2?  I don’t know. Maybe it was better than doing the morning crossword.)  How many Preludes in Book 2 are based on a sonata form?  Ten.  (Only the last prelude of Book 1 is in this form.)  How does WTCII vary in nature from WTCI?  I find WTCII to have more craft in the preludes; they take on a more personal, story-telling quality; they ascend to a higher art form than the already excellent preludes in WTCI.

I have not promoted this blog in the normal venues for blog writers.  I slipped it into my website without telling people about it.  I haven’t created a Twitter or Facebook account to link to the blog.  I wrote it for two reasons. One was to give the thoughts that come to me each summer on this Bach journey a place to live.  The other, bigger reason is for my students, should you ever stumble into this blog.  I want you to know how deeply this music affects me and my life, how seriously I consider this music to benefit my mind, heart and soul, and, importantly, how profoundly I think it will benefit yours.

I wrote this blog for you.

Love,

Miss Helen

A Well-Tempered Summer Club

For the summer of COVID lockdown, I and several of my current and former students are setting out on the Well Tempered journey, playing the entire Well-Tempered Clavier Books I & II together.

I hope this to be a setting for us to comment and post photos as we travel along.

Today as I played WTCI No. 1 in C major, I settled into the beautiful slow development of harmonies in a thoughtful mien.  Since playing through the WTC last, I lost my husband to cancer.  It is sad and surreal to play without him.  But how special to embark the journey with others who are dear to me.

 

 

Comments:

Celia:

Hi Helen,

I’m so glad you invited me to join you in playing through the Well-Tempered Clavier this summer. I remember you mentioning doing this every summer when I was taking lessons with you, and I am excited to join you this year (and hopefully in the future!)

I enjoyed playing through WTCI No. 1 yesterday and No. 2 today; I’m pretty familiar with both of these (very familiar with No. 1, and I think I at least started learning No. 2 at some point), so this will be getting harder as we play through preludes and fugues I’m less familiar with. It will be an adventure and a challenge, and I’m thrilled to be sharing it with you and your other students.

Love,

Celia

Helen:

Thanks for your poignant comment, Celia. I’m so pleased to share this summer discipline with you and the others, it’s very special.

Love, Helen

Katie: Hi Ms. Helen!
I am so excited to begin this project with you. Since I have basically taking the last year or so off from playing piano (thanks for sucking away all my time, law school), I have decided to focus on playing the Preludes and skip the Fugues for now. Maybe I’ll be able to focus on those next summer, but for now I didn’t want to have to think that analytically.
It was lovely getting to start off with C Major – a piece I know very well and barely had to look at the music for. Definitely the confidence booster I needed coming back to the piano rusty. We’ll see how the rest go, since I am not as familiar with them and they tend to get harder.
Thank you for inviting me to join along! I am very much looking forward to spending time at the piano again.

Helen:  That’s just grand, Katie! I’m so glad you are playing again, and enjoying.

Love, Helen

July 3

Hello, WTC Club,

I’m sure you’ve noticed today’s key signature.  I think JSB hit it out of the ballpark in both volumes with his C# Major P&F’s, both are just beautiful, absolutely worth all the concentration to deal with B# and FX and everything else.  It’s the anti-pandemic — all positivity, optimism, sunshine, and concentration.

I hope you are enjoying the project!    XOXOXO Helen

 

Comments:

Celia: Hi Everyone! I found playing through Fugue 3 a challenge because of those double sharps, but it is gorgeous. I am thinking I may try to learn Prelude and Fugue 3 sometime soon! Hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am so far!

Celia: Also, I read on Wikipedia that the WTC 1 C# Major Prelude and Fugue were originally published in C Major in another collection – does anyone know if this is true?

Helen: Hi, Celia! There are some nice articles about 848 (C#M) P&F online, but I can’t find the one that suggests it was originally published no flats no sharps! That would certainly make it easier. I found this intriguing comment by, I think, pianist Patrick Ayrton: “Yet the Prelude is a model of melodious simplicity and the Fugue has one of the liveliest themes of the whole Wohltemperirte Clavier. Bach was clearly more in line with Johann Mattheson, who predicted in 1719 that in a couple of hundred years’ time musicians would be playing C-sharp major just as easily as the village organists of the time played C major.” I’m not sure that Mattheson’s prediction has come true, but it implies Ayrton’s understanding that Bach intended us to resolve our problems with lots and lots of sharps. 🙂

Grace: I used to have the C# major from book two memorized, so I found it much easier to read than the next day’s pieces. Funny how experience works like that!

Helen: Hi, Grace! One can certainly say, Thank Goodness for experience, when one is playing a key signature like this one. 🙂

Sabrina: This is a couple days late because I just figured out how to comment, but I really enjoyed the c# major fugue! The key signature seemed pretty intimidating at first, but I found that it wasn’t too terrible once I got used to it. For some reason I’ve had to read through double sharps in a lot of the flute music I’ve played, so I think that made it a little less confusing for me when I came across them in this prelude and fugue (although it’s still not exactly easy).

Helen: Hi, Sabrina! Almost everyone has something to say about this key signature, and this beauty of a fugue! And how cool that your flute experience has made double sharps easier for you. Someday we will master these little devils. 🙂

Nadia: Although I was playing from WTCII, I thought the C# minor fugue was beautiful. It was my favorite one I’ve come across so far. I played through it multiple times and with separate hands to really bring out the different voices.

Helen: Nadia, that P&F from WTCII is one of my very favorites, especially the Prelude! Glad you enjoyed.