Experts....How to play Bach's Prelude and Fugue in A flat BW862 well?

Question

This is one of my grade 8 piano exam pieces. I don't know Bach's style, so it's a little difficult for me. Please give me some tips/opinions/advices in playing this piece. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I can give you a technical analysis.
Maybe that would help.

If the prelude were in A major, it would be a perfect piece for the violin. It even starts with the same rhythm as the prelude to the E major partita for unaccompanied violin. If ms. 13-16 were in the key of A, we could have an open string E alternating with other notes, a technique known as "bariolage." (In this passage, be sure to contrast the Eb's with the intermittent notes.)

Ledbetter suggests that Bach might have originally written this piece in the key of A, but no such manuscripts have been found.

We do not have any historical evidence that Bach played the violin, but Schweitzer suspects that he did, because a violinistic style appears throughout all of his works for any instrument.

In the prelude, the most important item is to notice the dominant cadence in ms. 17-18 and the tonic cadence in ms. 34-35. In Bach's music, a cadence usually marks the beginning of an important section. At ms. 18, we begin an excursion into the dominant. At ms. 35, we begin a coda. Some teachers might suggest a slight retard on each cadence.

Notice that the opening motive reappears in the bass in ms. 9, whereupon a sequence passage follows.

This sequence passage is inverted and transposed to the dominant beginning in ms. 26.

Don't forget to roll the last chord.

In the fugue, the answer in ms. 2 is not exact, Rather, some of the intervals are changed. This makes it a "tonal answer."

The major divisions of the fugue are:

Exposition--ms, 1. Notice that the third voice is 2 measures late.

Pay special attention to ms. 3. It is important. The bass plays an eighth note figure which will reappear.
The tenor plays a syncopated figure which will also reappear. This is unusual, because usually a countersubject plays a secondary role instead. Since these figures do not have textbook names, we shall call them the "eighth note waiting motif" and the "syncopated waiting motif," respectively.

Since it does not have a textbook name, we call call it the "eighth note waiting motif."

Episode--ms. 7

Exposition--ms. 10 in tenor voice in the tonic. Bach does not usually write a second exposition in the tonic. Ledbetter thinks Bach was making a gentle spoof on the Vivaldi concertos, in which the orchestra usually announces the main theme a second time in the tonic.

Episode--ms. 11. Notice the eighth note waiting motif in the bass.

Exposition--ms. 13 in alto voice in the relative minor

Episode--ms. 14, an inversion and transposition of Episode in ms. 11/ This time, the eighth note waiting motif appears in the alto and the syncopated waiting motife appears in the
soprano.

Exposition--ms. 17 in tenor voice in supertonic, answered in alto voice in relative minor

Episode--ms.19. The soprano plays the eighth note waiting motif while the tenor plays the syncopated waiting motif.

Also notice the fragmentation of the subject in ms. 21.

Exposition--ms. 23 in alto voice in dominant, answered in soprano voice in tonic

Episode--ms. 25

Final exposition--ms. 27 in bass in tonic, answered in tenor, then in alto. Be sure to sound nice and triumphal.

One source marks ms. 31 as a coda. I don't know why.
Notice the deceptive cadence in ms. 33.

This is followed by one last announcement of the subject in the soprano.. Landowksa comments, "As a farewell the theme appears for the last time in the soprano. The alto joins it with an intensely affecting phrase."

In the expositions, be sure to play the subject good and loud and the other voices nice and soft.

As for the mood of the two pieces, Landowska calls the prelude "lively" and the fugue "meditative, quiet,and serene."

I hope this is enough.
If it isn't, send me your e-mail address and I will run the pages through the scanner.

Answer 2

it is better to study it then practice it.