The Well-Tempered Clavier: overview of the fugues and case studies (BWV 847, 849, 861, 883)

The collection

The Well-Tempered Clavier (Das wohltemperirte Clavier) comprises two books of 24 preludes and fugues each, in all the major and minor keys, in chromatic order (C major, C minor, C# major, C# minor… up to B minor). The first book is dated 1722 (Köthen), the second was compiled some twenty years later in Leipzig. Bach knew earlier collections, such as J. C. F. Fischer's Ariadne musica, from which he took some themes.

Number of voices

• The fugues range from two to five voices; most are in three or four.
• Two five-voice fugues in the first book: C# minor BWV 849 and Bb minor BWV 867.
• Only one two-voice fugue: E minor, first book.

Case studies

Fugue in C minor BWV 847 (book I)

• Three voices, 31 bars, regular countersubjects.
• Entries: middle voice (subject), high voice (answer in G minor), bass (subject).
• First episode built as an accompanied canon at the fourth, which modulates to the relative major (Eb); the second countersubject is adapted to the major mode.
• Closing with a Picardy third.
• Ideal model for the analysis of a regular fugue (see also the entry on the formal plan).

Fugue in C# minor BWV 849 (book I)

• Five voices, 115 bars: one of the longest and densest fugues.
• Subject in long values: C# B# E D# C#, cross-shaped (semitone down, diminished fourth up, semitone down).
• Second theme in eighth notes from bar 36, third theme from bar 49: the three themes combine in invertible counterpoint (bars 49–88). Only the first has a true exposition, so the others function as countersubjects.
• Entries of the exposition from bottom to top; strettos at bar 55 and, more densely, in bars 94–99.

Fugue in G minor BWV 861 (book I)

• Tonal answer; the first codetta is missing: the subject ends on the note that harmonizes the beginning of the answer, which enters immediately.

Fugue in F# minor BWV 883 (book II)

• Three voices, 70 bars, the only triple fugue of the second book.
• Subject of fifteen notes made only of leaps (descending arpeggio of the tonic and a leap of a sixth) with hidden sequences.
• First countersubject at bar 20, immediately treated in canon; second countersubject, in continuous sixteenth notes, at bar 36.
• From bar 51 (counter-exposition) subject and two countersubjects overlap in different arrangements.

Fugue in C major BWV 846 (book I)

• Four voices, real answer, exposition subject-answer-answer-subject, stretto fugue with a four-voice canon (see the dedicated entry).

Types present in the collection

• Stretto fugues, fugues with regular countersubjects, fugues with inverted subject, triple fugues, fugues in the old style (long values) and in the instrumental style (dance or toccata subjects).

Study method

1. Choose one fugue for each type (stretto, with countersubjects, five-voice, triple).
2. For each, write the table: bar, voice, entry (S/A), key, material of the other voices.
3. Play the subject and sing the inner voices.
4. Compare prelude and fugue: they often share motifs or characters (in the case of BWV 849 the bass of the prelude anticipates the notes of the fugue subject).

Modern application

• Pianists and keyboardists: playing a three-voice fugue is the best exercise in hand independence and polyphonic listening, useful in jazz and pop too.
• Production: preludes and fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier are often sampled, rearranged and quoted in pop; knowing their structure helps you use them creatively, for example by isolating a prelude progression as a loop or a subject head as a hook.
• Arranging: transcribing a fugue for string quartet, winds or choir teaches the balance of the voices and register.

Related topics

Analysis of the Fugue BWV 846, fugue: formal plan, triple and quadruple counterpoint, double and triple fugues, prelude.