Listening Journey through J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier 1. Preludes and Fugues No 5 and 6

The third session of our listening journey presented the Preludes and Fugues in D-major and D-minor from the WTC 1.

I was a little uneasy about my decision to discuss the pieces in order, because it put the fugue in d-minor at the end of the session. Technically, it’s not very challenging, but there is something edgy, almost tormented about the music. It’s not a crowd-pleaser, not an easy piece to listen to, and analysis remained the only way I could think of to demonstrate Bach’s supreme craftsmanship in weaving the piece together.  

My greatest challenge in guiding the audience through the pieces on our journey is to imagine what they might sound like to listeners who hear them for the first time. I can’t even remember my own first listening experience. It’s impossible to recall it in my imagination after exploring the music thoroughly in the course of learning to play it, and living with it for a long time.

I try to fill those presentations with “life” as much as possible, in order to illustrate what happens in the music through analogies that are accessible to a general audience. I had found a few “bells and whistles” to illustrate the Prelude and Fugue in D-major: 

a video of a “Pendulum wave” for the Prelude,

a video of Händel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, with showers of sparks illuminating the night sky 

for the Fugue in D-major, and a video of the Jacques Loussier Trio, presenting a Jazz improvisation of that fugue on Leipzig’s market square, part of the festivities on the occasion of the 250^th anniversary of Bach’s death in 2000. 

Jacques Loussier, 1934-2019

The falling leaves swirling all around us in late November created a perfect illustration for the swirling notes in the right hand of the D-minor Prelude, 

but the fugue in D-minor stubbornly resisted my efforts to make the discussion attractive. At the end of the day at the end of the week, Friday 7pm- 8pm. “If everybody is fast asleep by the time we get finished, I can’t help it,” I said to a student who played both pieces last year.

I had underestimated the enthusiasm of the dedicated audience, assembled at the Ethical Culture Society that evening. More than 20 people – the largest crowd we’ve had so far – not only followed the presentation with great interest, but stayed on after the end of the session to discuss additional questions. Thank you, every one for coming, and please, come again. And then we talked some more over refreshments, generously provided by Terri Suess and served by Marshall Norstein, which goes far beyond his tasks as building manager. Thank you both, Terri and Marshall, and thank you, everyone at Ethical who is helping with this project. It’s a joy to make it happen, inspired by your support.

For readers who find the script of my presentation of the individual pieces too challenging or tedious to follow without the sound examples, I’m putting my concluding remarks first in this blog. That way, you have some introduction and you can click on the link in the text to listen to the pieces on youtube, if you like. All recordings come with the marked score that illustrates items pointed out in the discussion. A more detailed discussion of each piece follows after the general remarks.

Prelude and Fugue in D-major and D-minor – contrast and balance.

In the Preludes and Fugues in D-major and D-minor we encounter ways of joining together opposites.

At the core of the Prelude in D-major is a pattern that consists of two motifs that complement each other. The second is the inversion of the first, there’s a balance between them.

Bach combines this perpetual motion prelude with a fugue whose basic rhythmic impulse is stop-and-go – the dotted rhythm, that’s at the core of the subject of the Fugue in D-major.  

In the course of the fugue he abandons the subject as it appears in the beginning and separates its two elements - the initial turn and the dotted rhythm. If you look at the proportions of the sections throughout the piece, however, they’re of equal length – two subject entries are balanced by two elements of a sequence in the first episode. The accumulation of subject entries in M 11-16 has exactly the same length as the following long episode. Two measures dominated by the turn (first element of the subject) are followed by two measures dominated by the dotted rhythm (second element of subject). While the elements of the subject are eventually separated, the “big picture” reveals a concept of balance.

The Prelude in D-minor is a very energetic and somewhat “unruly” piece. 

Melodic lines hide between the patterns of broken triads in the right hand. They frequently show up “off-beat”, seemingly at random, always trying to escape from the melodic lines of the “walking bass” in the left hand, as if refusing to be tethered down.

The Fugue in D-minor undertakes the challenging task of weaving opposites together, getting them to cooperate. 

The subject asks a troubled question. It changes its shape many times; it feels undecided, alternating between major and minor thirds. It turns this way and that, even upside down. I like to think of inversion – as the technique is called - as the other point of view in an argument between two opponents.

In the coda, Bach joins the first idea of the subject together with the inversion of that idea, synchronized in time. He uses the major third, and the piece ends in a major chord. A friend once gave me this little card with a quote by Heraclitus:

Discussion of the individual pieces

Prelude in D-major

The Prelude in D-major is a “perpetual motion” piece. The ups and downs of the pitches in the right hand create a melodic pattern. Once it is set in motion, it never stops.  The pattern consists of two groups of four 16^th notes. They do not coincide with the way the 16^th are grouped together, by the way.

The first impulse consists of three rising steps, followed by a drop down. The second is just the opposite: three falling steps, followed by a leap upwards. Those two motifs complement each other; in fact, the second is the inversion of the first. That creates a feeling of balance. A gap separates the two motifs throughout the piece. Sometimes it’s as small as a third, at other times as large as a 7^th, but it’s always there.

 The first two measures are based on the cadence in D-major and stay within the scale. In M 3 the pattern returns to its starting point. You could create an “endless” loop, simply repeating it. Musically, this is not very interesting, however. You want go somewhere, visit other places. Bach gets there by way of modulation. In M 3-6, a consistent g-sharp appears, a note that does not belong to the D-major scale. This note is like a switch on the railroad that gets the train on a different track. 

We may not be conscious of it, but we feel the key changes throughout the piece. We also sense the places where the melody reaches a harmonic destination, supported by the single notes in the left hand that are like the pushes you give a swing to keep it moving.

In the course of the piece, we get to visit the harmonies of steps I-VI of the D-major scale – I: D (M3) – V: A (M6) – III: F-sharp minor (M10) – II: E-minor (M12) – VI: B-minor (M18 – note the long transition to this point) and finally IV: G(M 20) At this point, Bach quotes M 1-6 of the Prelude. It’s the same section of the piece, but the lower register makes it feel more mellow than the bright opening.  The modulation in M 22-24 brings us back to the initial key of D-major.   
The final part of the Prelude is a grand finale. Harmonically, it solidifies the key with a long pedal point in A-major, the dominant. Gradually, Bach starts to abandon the melodic pattern (M 30/31) The piece merges into a free improvisation that prepares us for something great: the fugue.

Pendulum Wave Toy

 Since the Middle Ages, people have tried to construct “perpetual motion machines” – once started, the energy will continue to flow, sustained by its own momentum. For all we know today this is impossible, the little perpetual motion toys people put on their desks, often wheels or pendulums definitely run for a long time before they stop. They remind me of the chain of melodic patterns that Bach sets in motion in this piece. The following link connects to a video of a pendulum wave: Pendulum Wave

Fugue in D-major

If I heard this music, not knowing the piece, I’d never think it’s a fugue, because with fugue, we associate a network of independent voices. What catches the ear in this piece is the distinct chordal structure. Of course one always tends to forget that chords are the intersection of melodic lines. We get the impression of chords in this fugue whenever the separate voices move at the same time. The most striking example is the coda. What we perceive as chords are independent melodies that move in the same rhythm. 

note the tenor (marked blue) rising higher than the alto in the second measure

In the last four measures of the fugue Bach isolates the two elements that make up the subject: the dotted rhythm and the quick turn that precedes it. The turn is really an embellishment of the dotted rhythm. It creates continuous motion, like a start-up that harnesses energy for the leap upwards (6^th) that is so characteristic for this subject.

The dotted rhythm is characteristic for a baroque form we call French Ouverture: A piece that begins with a slow introduction dominated by this rhythmic idea, followed by a quick and lively section, often a fugue. The character associated with this kind of opening is festive, grandeur, dignity, splendor, lots of light and color. Rather than turn to one of Bach’s compositions in this form, we listened to the opening of Händel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks. The key of D-major suits trumpets perfectly. At times, Händel creates a question-and-answer structure between different groups of instruments. Bach employs a similar structure between groups of voices in the episodes.

The D-major fugue is set for four parts. First, we’ll follow the subject. In the course of the exposition it rises consecutively from the lowest to the highest voice. The next two entries are in bass and soprano, modulating to b-minor. Then, in M 11-15, it appears five times. In addition, the bass has two sort of “fake” entries (M 11 and 13). Strictly speaking, they don’t qualify as entries, because there are slight changes in the melodic structure, but they retain the rhythmic structure, especially that initial turn. I think that dominates in the aural impression we get.

In this section one subject entry immediately follows the next, as if the initial turn lighted the fuse that shoots one fireworks rocket after another into the sky.

After that, the subject is burnt out. It never appears again in its complete form. The fugue ends with a long episode and the coda.

The opposite of the dotted rhythm is continuously flowing motion – the prelude is an example of that. Of course, the dotted rhythm develops its own kind of continuity when its elements are repeated, but it never looses that “limp.”

In the episodes Bach separates the elements of the subject – the turn and the repeated notes/dotted rhythm and, by dissolving the dotted rhythm into a continuous pattern of 16^th notes, he creates a continuum of motion between two voices: that smoothes the effect of the dotted rhythm that is still present in two voices, often in the middle register.

The coda once again presents both elements of the fugue. Once he’s taken it apart, Bach never puts the subject back together again. For all I know, this is the only fugue in the entire WTC where that happens.  The Jacques Loussier Trio takes elements of the fugue as the basis for their Jazz improvisation.

Jacques Loussier, 1934-2019

Prelude in D-minor

Here’s another “perpetual motion” piece, but it’s very different from the D-major Prelude. There, the momentum appears steady, measured, controlled. The D-minor Prelude moves forward in a continuous surge of energy and constant restlessness. 

If D-major evokes the image of a pendulum, this one reminds me of a leaf-blower, or leaves caught in a corner, twirled round and round by the wind.

The pattern is based on broken triads, a three-note pattern in triplets. It opens with the cadence harmonies in d-minor, all the while supported by a repeated d (pedal point) in the left hand.

A huge leap in M 2 marks a new beginning. A sequence follows, descending at first, then rising, while the pattern is shortened – it sounds more urgent this way. It reaches its peak on a high C and then descends more than two octaves – where we find ourselves in the key of F-major.

This opening contains features that will become more poignant in the course of the piece. The accompaniment has the manner of a walking bass” in Jazz: at a medium tempo, it ascends and descends stepwise, one note to each beat. Bach builds the energy gradually in this piece, from the initial repeated notes to the bounces that follow, to the continuous bass line that emerges in M 4.

Hidden melody lines that shine through the pattern in the right hand are the second feature. They’re very subtle at the beginning, but you do get a line if you connect the peak notes of each phrase in M 2-4.

As the piece progresses, those lines are everywhere (see marked notes in the score) The tricky thing is: they’re mostly “off beat” and thank heavens for the walking bass in the left hand that keeps the pace. They continue throughout the second part of the Prelude, while the bass gets a little more static. The pedal point d is like a leash for the RH in M 16-20. Then, a 3^rd voice is introduced: additional harmony notes support the walking bass lines. All the while, the RH follows its own path.

In the last two lines, there’s one more sweep up, before the RH triplets sink down in half steps as diminished triads before a big cadence ends the piece - all the leaves are in the bag.

Fugue in D-minor

There’s something dark and brooding, almost tormented about this fugue. This music is not trying to charm or please. At the same time, it’s most exquisitely crafted. Everything that happens in the fabric that the voices weave together is related in one way or other to the subject.

The subject consists of three motifs. It begins on the first note of the scale and ends on the fifth – the musical equivalent of an open question. You would expect the third subject entry in M 6 to mark the end of the exposition. Every voice has now had the subject once in this fugue in 3 parts.

The 3^rd entry is immediately followed by a fourth, however. It has the same overall melodic shape and rhythmic structure, but it starts on a different step of the scale. That changes the intervals (distances) between the melody notes and makes the melody sound different – quite disturbing, actually. The harmony of d-minor shines through the moving voices that accompany the last note, but the feeling of resolution is obscured and immediately swept away by the motion in the left hand in the following episode.

This section sounds quite mellow initially, but the ending only underscores the initial questioning character of the subject. IN M 12, Bach splits the subject, combining its 2^nd and 3^rd motifs in the bass with the inversion of the first motif in the middle voice. The tied b-flat in the soprano adds a jarring suspension on the first beat of M 13.

Stretto 1 The inversion foreshadows what is to come in the first stretto immediately afterwards. The subject in the soprano overlaps with the inversion of the subject. The counterpoint in the bass underscores the dramatic character of the section.

Stretto 2 A second stretto follows. Two subject entries in bass and alto overlap. They are not exactly the same; Bach alternates between the major and the minor third. This kind of change takes place throughout the entire piece - almost as if the subject were in search of its own identity. At the end, all three voices come together in the single note a, undefined in terms of major/minor.

The second part mirrors the first in terms of the “dramatic” development and structure. What’s new:  the idea of “inversion” – turning the subject and its elements upside down plays a significant part.

Stretto 3 The part begins with a stretto that combines the subject and the inversion. Inversion dominates, and continues into the following episode.

Stretto 4 This open ending leads into another stretto. It again combines subject and inversion – this time, the subject is placed 2^nd and in the middle voice. This is the only time after the exposition where the subject is exactly the same as at the beginning of the piece.

Episode 3 is very similar to E1. Things calm down. Again, the last measure splits up the motifs of the subject, but the first motif is not inverted. Harmonically, it turns to the tonic (I), not the dominant (V) -  the resolution to the question. (To feel the difference, play M 12/13 and M 33/34 back to back)

Stretto 5 Two subject entries overlap in this stretto. The second entry is incomplete and leads into an episode where the tension clearly rises – note the sequence of motif 1, inverted, in the left hand.

Stretto 6 Two subject entries overlap – alternating major/minor 3^rd, as in Stretto 3 that concluded 1^st part,

Coda: after so much darkness and tension, the ending in major may come as a surprise: Bach combines the first motif of the subject – in major - with its inversion. Additional voices support the impression of harmonies, rather than independently moving voices.