Le clavier bien tempéré I - Fugue 06 BWV 851

About this work

The subject of this Fugue in D minor moves in small steps, with a chromatic tension that refuses to settle too soon. Its entries pass from one voice to another while the accompanying lines continue on their own paths. The aim is therefore not to emphasise everything, but to keep the subject recognisable without erasing the rest.

Begin by locating the three voices in the score. Play each one separately, then combine them in pairs. When the third returns, maintain the same tempo and reduce the weight of the accompanying voice: clarity comes more from balance than from forced contrast.

Shaping the 44 bars

The three-beat metre needs a regular sway. Mark the beginnings of sequences and cadences in pencil, then connect these points in long phrases. In dense passages, slow down without pedal and check the releases; a single note held too long can obscure an entry.

The checked score


Scoring: this fugue is written for solo keyboard, with its voices distributed between the upper and lower staves.
Extent: 44 bars occupy two US Letter pages; the playback file contains 1,047 note attacks.
Rights: the composition is in the public domain. Knute Snortum distributes the LilyPond source under CC BY-SA 4.0. LesPartitions.info checked its melodic course, produced the derived files and included its link in the printable document.