Yesterday my post was about the Prelude in D minor, BWV 554/1 and today it's the turn for the analysis of its fugue, BWV 554/2. Every organist knows them as being a part of the collection of 8 Short Preludes and Fugues BWV 553-560.
The fugue is considerably more difficult than the prelude primarily because it features imitative polyphonic writing for 4 highly independent voices. Nevertheless, it is within the reach of any organist with basic organ playing skills. This composition starts out with the subject presented in the soprano voice in the key of D minor (the Tonic) which is followed by the tonal answer in the alto (A minor, the Dominant, measure 4). The exposition continues with the subject entry in the tenor voice (D minor, the Tonic, measure 6) and the answer in the bass (A minor, the Dominant, measure 9). In measure 12, we can see a head motive of the subject in the soprano voice in A minor (the Dominant) which leads to the cadence and subject entry in the alto voice in C major (the relative key of the Dominant, measure 14). In measure 18, the pedals play the subject in F major (the relative key) after which we can find an ascending sequence (measures 21-24) formed by the head motive of the subject. This sequence moves through the keys of C major (relative of the Dominant), F major (relative key), G minor (the Subdominant), and A minor (the Dominant) and finally reaches the full-length subject in the alto voice in the key of D minor (the Tonic, measure 25). As it is customary for many Baroque compositions, this fugue closes with an excursion to the Subdominant (G minor) which is presented by the subject in the bass part (measure 27). I have prepared a score of this composition with complete fingering and pedaling written in which greatly facilitates practicing and learning process of this exciting work. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide.
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This prelude is included in the collection of 8 Short Preludes and Fugues, BWV 553-560. Earlier it was thought that the composer was Johann Sebastian Bach but currently scientists believe they might have been written by Johann Ludwig Krebs, one of Bach's most talented and accomplished students.
The prelude is written in a classical ternary ABA form with exact recapitulation at the end. By the way, the final cadence of section A reminds very much the opening phrase of the choral "Jesu, meine Freude". In section A (measure 1-6), composer establishes the tonic key of D minor and shows the first musical idea of the work. The texture varies between 4 and 5 parts (6 parts at the beginning of the 2nd measure) so anyone interested in learning it will do well to practice all 15 combinations of solo voices, 2-part and 3-part combinations before putting everything together. The first episode in section B (measures 7-12) is written for 3 upper parts without the pedal. Here the composer explores a few compositional devices such as runs in the left hand, descending sequence and right hand suspentions. They lead to a cadence in F major (the relative key of D minor). In the second half of section B (measures 13-24) we can see the ascending chromatic sequence which moves through various related keys, namely B flat major, C major, and D minor. In fact, the entire episode is constructed from sequences because right after this ascending version, we can see two descending versions (in 4-part texture and in 3-part texture) which lead to the scalar passage connecting section B with recapitulation (measures 25-31). The most common mistakes I see people make when practicing this prelude is playing it without paying too much attention to detail which results in a sloppy articulation because the texture might be too complicated to play all parts together right away. Playing without forcing oneself to stop frequently and correct the mistakes a few times is another mistake which slows down the progress of an organist and even might result in unnecessary frustration. I have prepared a score of this composition with complete fingering and pedaling written in which greatly facilitates practicing and learning process of this exciting work. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. If you open the score of Bach's Passacaglia, BWV 582, at the beginning of it is a theme which is 8 measures long. It is a basis of the entire composition. Not only in the variations but also in the fugue the composer uses the same theme as the basis for it's construction.
Some people have asked me if this theme has to be performed legato or in a articulated style. I have heard both versions being performed. The legato style of performance have come to the organ from the Romantic piano tradition and it stayed for a long time. Even today there are organists who are not aware that articulated performance style even exists. Whether they practice or perform on the organ, they apply legato touch. Since Bach's Passacaglia is a Baroque composition, we must apply the articulate legato touch which was called the "Ordinary Touch" in this period. So we have to articulate the theme quite prominently when we play it on the organ, even with a feeling of alternation between strong and week beats. That's possible to achieve if you shorten the third beat. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. This piece is one of the most favorite chorale preludes by Bach for many organists. It is included in the collection of 18 Great Chorales, otherwise known as the Leipzig Chorale Preludes.
It features a highly ornamented soprano line which carries out the chorale tune. The pedal line moves in constant eighth-notes and the two middle voices (alto and tenor) are given to the left hand. If you watch the performance of the great Ton Koopman on the Silbermann organ in Freiberg, you may feel you are in heaven for these 4.5 minutes (at least I do). I think one of the reasons it is so charmingly beautiful is the way Bach ornaments the melody AND at the same time let's us experience this fantastic harmony, chord progressions, and modulations. This composition, by the way, is a superb piece to play for your church service, public recital or just for the enjoyment of your friends or family. The difficulty, though, is in reading Alto C clef from the Bach Gesellschaft Edition. Also, since every voice is so independent here, you have to be able to listen to each part separately and analyze the form, tonal plan, and cadences in this piece. Otherwise, you will not be able to appreciate Bach's spectacular part-writing, voice-leading, harmony, and modulations. If you want to master this beautiful piece, check out my brand new BWV 659 Home Study Course in which I will teach you everything that you need to know to be able to play it in public. The score with the complete fingering and pedaling using treble and bass clefs is included with this course for easy practicing. If you have ever tried to play chorale prelude "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme", BWV 645 from the Schubler's collection by Bach, you surely have noticed that the spots that give you most trouble are cadences. Why is it so?
Before I answer this question, if you are not sure what cadence is, let me briefly explain it to you. A cadence is a harmonic or melodic idea which helps to bring a musical section to a close. So if you imagine this chorale prelude, a good place for cadence is the end of the opening episode, called Ritornello. It repeats in various ways throughout the piece and serves as a nice connection between the appearances of the chorale tune. In order to answer the question of cadences and why they are difficult to master in this composition, let's look at the harmonic rhythm of this piece. For people who are not sure what "harmonic rhythm" is, let's just say that it refers to the frequency of how often the chords or the harmony change throughout the piece. If you look at the pedal part, which is the basis of harmony, you will notice that the chords and the harmony in this chorale prelude usually change twice per measure, that is every two quarter notes. Here I don't mean the simple inversions of the same chord or non-chordal tones which might change more frequently. If the harmony usually changes every two beats, the places when it changes a lot more frequently are the cadences. In a typical cadence of this piece, the chords usually change every beat or even every eighth note. It is precisely because of this frequent changes of chords and a denser texture that the cadences are more difficult to master in this piece. You see, quicker rhythms require a better hand and feet coordination from an organist. Therefore the process of learning the piece is slower here. I recommend learning the cadences in a slow tempo: hands and feet separately, then combinations of two voices, and only then the entire three-part texture. By the way, if you like chorale prelude "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme", BWV 645 by Bach , check out my brand new BWV 645 Home Study Course in which I will teach you how to master this piece in 17 days or less while practicing only about 30 minutes a day! To your success in Bach organ playing, Vidas Pinkevicius Because Advent starts this Sunday and Christmas season is fast approaching, today I would like to give you a list of 10 possible Bach organ pieces to play at this festive time of the year.
1. Nun komm’ den Heiden Heiland, BWV 659. This chorale prelude was especially valued by Felix Mendelssohn. It has a highly ornamented melody in soprano of unprecedented beauty. The texture is in four parts. Medium. 2. Gott, durch deine Güte, BWV 600 from Orgelbüchlein. This is a canonic chorale – the canon happens in soprano and tenor (played by the pedals). The alto voice moves in eighth notes while the bass plays quarter notes. Medium. 3. Herr Christ, der einge Gottes-Sohn, BWV 601 from Orgelbüchlein. The texture is in four parts. Here the tune is given to the soprano voice. The piece is build around the suspirans motive which is imitated in the three lower parts. Medium. 4. Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her, BWV 606 from Orgelbüchlein. In this chorale prelude the tune is given to the soprano. The two middle voices feature sixteenths and the bass has eighths. Medium. 5. Nun komm’ den Heiden Heiland, BWV 599 from Orgelbüchlein. This is the opening piece from this collection. The arpeggiated texture reminds of the harpsichord pieces by Couperin. Medium. 6. Puer natus in Bethlehem, BWV 603 from Orgelbüchlein. It has a flowing 3/2 meter, four part texture with the tune in soprano voice. Medium. 7. Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich, BWV 605 from Orgelbüchlein. This piece is written for two manuals and a pedal. The accompanying alto and tenor voices create a joyful rhythmical figure involving two thirtyseconds and sixteenths. Medium. 8. In dulci jubilo BWV 608, from Orgelbüchlein. This piece is based on the 14th century Macaronic Latin/German Christmas carol. This composition is a great example of Bach's contrapuntal writing - it is a double canonic chorale prelude (the soprano tune is imitated by the bass and the triplet figures appear in alto and tenor. Medium. 9. In dir ist Freude BWV 615, from Orgelbüchlein. This is the only piece from this collection which features the tune in fragmentation. It has a joyful character, fast tempo, and will not be too easy to play. However, once you master it, you and your listeners will surely enjoy it. Difficult. 10. Chorale prelude "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme", BWV 645. This is the opening piece from the collection of 6 chorale preludes which became known as the Schubler chorales. The piece is written in a trio texture, with the chorale tune in the tenor voice. Medium. By the way, if you like chorale prelude "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme", BWV 645 by Bach , check out my brand new BWV 645 Home Study Course in which I will teach you how to master this piece in 17 days or less while practicing only about 30 minutes a day! To your success in Bach organ playing, Vidas Pinkevicius The chorale prelude "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme", BWV 645 is one of the most often played chorales by Bach. Originally it was a part of the Cantata No. 140 but Bach later transcribed it to the 3-part organ texture and included in the collection which later became known as 6 Schubler Chorales.
Since the Advent and Christmas season is comming up soon, this piece will be an excellent addition to your repertoire of this exciting time of the year. If you want to learn to play this wonderful composition on the organ, follow these 9 easy steps: 1. Analysis. I advice you look at the tonal plan and discover how the piece is put together. Find the closely related keys and cadences. Also make sure you analyze the form of this chorale prelude and make note of various appearances of Ritornellos. 2. Fingering. Because this piece has 3 flats, and originally was not composed for the organ, it will not be always possible to avoid the thumb on the sharp keys. However, at least avoid finger substitutions. 3. Pedaling. In order for your performance to be stylistically correct, play using alternate toe technique without heels. However, in instances when the pedal part goes to the extreme edges of the pedalboard, you can play with the same foot. 4. Ornamentation. In order to play in the genuine Baroque style, make sure you play all the ornaments - trills, appoggiaturas etc. correctly. Play them starting on the beat and not earlier. 5. Articulation. This piece has lots of original articulation indications written in which you should try to re-create. Also, many notes have to be performed using Articulate Legato touch. 6. Tempo. Remember that practice tempo should be much slower than that of the performance tempo and you should always be in control of each note. 7. Registration. The composer indicates that both hands should play on different sounds based on 8' stops. The pedal part should be based on the 16' stop. 8. Practice. Do not try to play all the parts together in this piece from the beginning until the end. For the best results, work in voice combinations in shorter fragments. 9. Memorisation. Although this is an optional step, I highy recommend it, if you intend to play this chorale prelude in public. Note that even if you choose to perform it in public from the score, knowing the piece by heart will give you this extra confidence and fluency. By the way, if you like this chorale prelude, check out my brand new BWV 645 Home Study Course in which I will teach you how to master this chorale prelude and even provide a score with complete fingering and pedaling written in for easy practicing. BWV 645 Home Study Course To your success in Bach organ playing, Vidas Pinkevicius Happy Thanksgiving! As you celebrate this wonderful evening with your families and think about the many things in life we all have to be grateful for, I have a fantastic piece for such an occasion - Nun danket alle Gott, BWV 657 by Johann Sebastian Bach. This is a chorale prelude from the famous collection of 18 Great Chorales, also known as the Leipzig Chorales. This is a four-part setting and the melody of the chorale (Cantus firmus) is presented in the soprano in longer note values. The tune is written in the Bar form (AAB). This is a traditional form of the German Lutheran chorales where the part A (Stollen) is repeated with a different text. Section B (Abgesang) is usually longer than A. The chorale prelude is written in the key of G major. At the beginning Bach uses Vorimitation technique where the first line of the tune is presented in imitation before the general Cantus firmus enters. The beginning features fugal entries of this phrase first in the soprano (tonic), the alto (dominant), and the bass (tonic). Phrases 1 and 2 of the tune are connected with an interlude where the tune is present in the tenor part. Then both phrases are repeated exactly from the beginning. Abgesang is prepared by the 3 fugal entrances of phrase 3 of the tune (tenor, bass, and alto). This time the key is D major and the fugal entries are written in the tonic, dominant, and tonic, respectively. Before phrase 4 (in D major) Bach writes another set of fugal entries using Vorimitation technique (tenor - tonic, bass - dominant, and alto - tonic). Phrase 5 is foreshadowed by the alto, tenor, and bass fugal entries in the left hand part and pedals. The piece is concluded by the phrase 6 in the alto (dominant) and soprano (tonic) and a long sustained tonic pedal point on the note G in the soprano. This is a traditional place to touch the subdominant key and and wrap up the entire composition. It is like an extended Plagal cadence involving the chords of the subdominant (C major) and the tonic (G major) which share the same common note (G). I hope you enjoy this brilliant piece performed on the organ at St. Thomas church in Leipzig: http://youtu.be/zynjWa4EbOQ If you cannot see the video, click on the title link at the beginning of this article. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my free video Organ Practice Guide. Or if you want to learn to improvise in the style of Bach? If so, I suggest you check out my free 9 day mini course in Keyboard Prelude Improvisation. I have received some feedback from people who were trying to play chorale prelude "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier", BWV 731 by Bach with the correct articulation. The biggest frustration they seem to have is that no matter how hard they try, their pedal part in this piece sounds legato.
I can understand this perfectly well. You see, a lot of people who are new to the Baroque articulation of organ music (not necessarily new to the organ playing in general, but just new to this style of articulation) spend their all energy focusing on the articulating the hand parts. What often happens is that they forget about their feet. It's difficult to think about several things at once and since on the organ we are constantly multi-tasking, some tasks might be left unchecked. If you found yourself in this situation, my strongest recommendation is to practice the pedal line separately until you can make small spaces between each and every note. Mentally think "note-rest-note-rest-note-rest" and so on. Then practice soprano and bass, later - alto and bass, and finally - tenor with the bass together. The next step would be to play soprano, alto, and bass, later - soprano, tenor, and bass, and alto, tenor, bass. If you do all the previous combinations, then playing all four parts together with the right articulation in the pedals will be very easy. By doing so, your ears will become gradually accustomed to listening if the pedals have the perfect articulation - articulate legato. Note that we are not talking about learning this piece from scratch. Instead, we are trying to find a solution to fix the articulation problem in the pedal line. If you are new to this piece, there are of course other learning methods to follow. By the way, if you were planning to get my brand new BWV 731 Home Study Course, do it now before the price rises tomorrow: BWV 731 Home Study Course To your success in Bach organ playing, Vidas Pinkevicius This week has been a fun one with lots of questions from my students about playing BWV 731. Some of the people even sent me their recordings of this piece which are always very exciting to listen to.
Since this chorale prelude needs to be performed in a very slow tempo, one of the most commons mistakes I see people make is the lost feeling of the pulse. In such a slow tempo, the danger of playing without a steady pulse is great. The thing is that the highly ornamented melody in the right hand part create many rhythmical problems for some people. In order to avoid the rhythmical confusion, they try counting every eighth note. But no matter how hard are they concentrating on playing the rhythms right, they have to be aware of the entire metrical structure of each measure. In other words, they have to constantly know which part of the measure they are in. One easy way to achieve this is of course count out loud the beats (one, two, three, and four). Moreover, you have to make the beats two and four shorter which will make them sound softer. In this manner you will achieve the alternation of strong and weak beats, and consequently – the feeling of the flowing pulse. Another common mistake is in performing ornaments. Some people still play the mordents and the trills starting before the beat which is not correct. No matter how many notes the ornament has (3, 4, 6 or even more) the first note of the ornament in this style has to start with the beat. Since the left hand involves playing two parts (alto and tenor), it is difficult for many people to articulate them properly. What happens is that in the right hand they try to play using articulate touch but in the left hand very often the notes sound legato. This is partly because their left hand technique is weaker than that of the right hand and partly because their fingering might not be stylistically correct. The ideal fingering for such piece should help to achieve the correct articulation naturally almost without thinking. By the way, check out my brand new BWV 731 Home Study Course in which I teach this chorale prelude with live sound examples and even provide a practice score with complete fingering and pedaling written in for the most efficient and stylistically correct performance: BWV 731 Home Study Course To your success in Bach organ playing, Vidas Pinkevicius |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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