Fugue No. 18 in G♯ minor, Well-Tempered Clavier II (BWV 887)

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

A three-voice double fugue in 6/8: a first subject, then a chromatic second one, finally combined. 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. G♯ minor, 6/8, 143 bars (about 7 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. Key signature with 5 sharps: name them aloud before playing and spot the places where accidentals cancel them. In 6/8, count the beats as groups of three eighths (dotted beats) to keep the lilt. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment.

More pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach

• Partita 4 (BWV 828) — movement 6
• Aus meines Herzens Grunde (Chorale 1) (BWV 269)
• Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C major (BWV 772)
• Prelude No. 1 in C major, Well-Tempered Clavier I (BWV 846)
• Two-Part Invention No. 13 in A minor (BWV 784)
• Two-Part Invention No. 8 in F major (BWV 779)
• Little Prelude in F major (BWV 928)
• Two-Part Invention No. 4 in D minor (BWV 775)

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