Fugue No. 8 in D♯ minor, Well-Tempered Clavier II (BWV 877)
Johann Sebastian Bach · Level 6 (Expert) · Baroque · Piano
A grave, expressive four-voice fugue on a chromatic subject, in the most sharp-laden key of the collection. From Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier (around 1740), a second cycle of preludes and fugues in all twenty-four keys. A 4-voice fugue. D♯ minor, 4/4, 46 bars (about 3 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 6 sharps: name them aloud before playing and spot the places where accidentals cancel them. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. For chords, shape the hand in the air before landing, all notes together.
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