How do you explain Bach's prelude and fugue bwv 884?

Question

I am trying to find a good explanation of Bach's prelude and fugue number 15 bwv 884 to be written in a souvenir program of a certain recital... Maybe you can help!

Answer 1

Here's what Wanda Landowska says about about it:

Oh, the malefactor who decided that Prelude WV in GT Major should be played very fast! For it is the way we generallyhear it, "executed" in the literal sense of that word. Really it does not deserve this fate. Tranquil, bucolic, and grounded on a pedal-point, it whispers gently as if to warn us, "Enjoy the calm, you will see the Fugue is quite different!"

And here is Fugue WV briskly dancing a 3/8 rhythm. Waltz? Courante a l'Italienne? It is difficult to tell.

In approaching the minor, from the twenty-fifth measure on, the Fugue becomes lighter, but not for long. More brialliant than ever, it rings with trills in the treble, middle voice, and bass. A bravura passage in thirty-seconds rolls across the keyboard and leads to the theme, which appears for the last time in the middle voice.