ExclusiveBach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1; Fugue No. 7 E Flat Major, Bwv 852

【Classical music and nature 古典音樂小站】Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1; Fugue No. 7 E Flat Major, Bwv 852. This beautiful piece was presented by Germanrecords. It is a royalty free music provided by pond5.com.

The Prelude and Fugue in E♭ major, BWV 852, is a keyboard composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is the seventh piece in the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of 48 preludes and fugues by the composer.

"It will pass, and I'm full of new plans!"

In his younger years, Bach was rather a hot-head. His new job in Köthen, for instance, caused considerable differences of opinion in his employers in Weimar. Bach only received his (dishonourable) dismissal four weeks after he had been put in prison for being ‘too obstinate in requesting his dismissal’. Music lexicographer Gerber, whose father studied with Bach in the 1720s, hints at this episode in guarded terms. He suggests that Bach composed the first part of the Wohltemperirte Clavier ‘at a place where boredom, frustration and the absence of any musical instrument forced him to find a pastime’. That would date this 1722 collection, or at least parts of it, at least five years earlier.

The question arises of whether there are compositions in the Well-Tempered Clavier in which you can hear Bach’s frustration about his time in prison. The Prelude and fugue in E-flat major could be interpreted in this way. In the prelude in three sections, at least, an interesting question appears to be raised. A short motif of eight notes, which always has a rising, questioning end, is repeated about fifteen times in every key, so to speak. It is as if you are assailed by a tricky problem: could I have handled it differently? What follows is a contemplative piece of self-examination, which results in the return of the same repeated motif, but now with a mostly descending, resigned line. Continuing this ‘psychological’ interpretation, this could mean that Bach did not blame himself. This is confirmed by the bold three-part fugue that follows, which really blows away all your troubles: it will pass, and anyhow I’m full of revolutionary new plans! Is this what Bach wanted to say in this prelude and fugue? That might just be the case.
Source: bachvereniging.nl

The video was captured by Christian Schlegel and edited by Wenjing Ma.




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