Prelude & Fugue in E Minor (BWV 879) for Pipe Organ - YouTube Mike Magatagan

The first book of J. S. Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier) was complete by 1722. Bach gave the present title to the work, which was composed "for the use and practice of musical youth eager to learn and for the amusement of those already skilled in this study." Bach composed a paired Prelude and Fugue in each of the 24 keys to demonstrate the viability of the new "equal-temperament" system, which allows one to play in all keys without producing out-of-tune intervals, as happened with Pythagorean and "mean tone" tunings. Furthermore, the pieces are as much compositional studies as keyboard works. Twenty years later, Bach assembled another set of preludes and fugues. The title page is missing from the manuscript, but its similarity to the "first" book of The Well-Tempered Clavier led editors to entitle it "Book II." Bach worked on the second book over a long period of time, even reworking pieces he had written for other purposes, as he had in the first book. Some of the preludes and fugues date from the 1720s. Possibly the most substantial revision for the second book was to No. 3, in C sharp major, which was originally in C major. Fugues Nos. 15 and 17 survive in earlier versions in which they are connected with different preludes than we find in The Well-Tempered Clavier. There are many musical differences between the works of Book II and those of Book I. The preludes in the second group explore a greater range of forms and styles than do the earlier examples. Most striking are the experiments in the style of the Italian bipartite keyboard sonata, codified by Domenico Scarlatti. Like earlier dance movements, these consist of two repeated sections. Some of the "sonata" preludes in Book II, such as Nos. 5, 12, and 21, feature a recapitulation of the opening material, while others (Nos. 10 and 15) have parallel closing sections. Prelude No. 17 is an Italian concert-ritornello movement; Nos. 13 and 23 also display concerto traits. The tenth is a two-part invention and Nos. 4 and 14 are ariosos. Those that are clearly derived form dance forms -- No. 5 from the gigue and No. 8 from the allemande -- lack the traditional binary form. Completely lacking any of the modern, "sad" connotations of the minor, this prelude moves with quick determination, a corrente in two voices that sometimes imitate each other, but more often with the bass line providing a busy accompaniment to the even more involved treble part. The fugue employs a different dance form: with its initial skipping figure, the subject is a gigue that eventually plays with contrasting rhythms. The three voices enter in descending order and build to a grand, impressive conclusion that slightly falls away in the last couple of bars. Source: Allmusic (http://www.allmusic.com/composition/p...). Although originally written for Harpsichord. I created this Transcription of the Prelude Fugue in E Minor (BWV 879) for 2-Manual Pipe Organ.

Prelude & Fugue in E Minor (BWV 879) for Pipe Organ - YouTube
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