Fugue No. 14 in F♯ minor, Well-Tempered Clavier II (BWV 883)

Johann Sebastian Bach · Level 6 (Expert) · Baroque · Piano

A three-voice triple fugue: three subjects presented in turn, then combined in a dense, serene texture. From Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier (around 1740), a second cycle of preludes and fugues in all twenty-four keys. A 3-voice fugue. F♯ minor, 4/4, 70 bars (about 5 minutes), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

  • Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
  • Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
  • Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
  • Find every entry of the subject and bring it out; practise the voices two by two, then decide which hand takes the inner voices before putting it together slowly. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. Start hands separately in Wait mode, then put hands together at a slow tempo before speeding up gradually.

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Source : Knute Snortum (gravure LilyPond, GitHub) · CC BY-SA 4.0