Week 1 - The Opening Pattern and Finding the Melody
Hey everyone! 🎹
The Prelude and Fugue in C minor Track is live, and for the next four weeks we're all learning BWV 847 together, in the same place, at the same time. It's the second pair in Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier.
Open the Track here: Prelude and Fugue in C minor Track
This week's suggested focus: Sections 1–4 (Introduction & Fundamentals through bar 24 of the Prelude): the C minor warmups and custom exercises, the opening pattern (bars 1–4), finding the melody hidden inside the figuration, and building your dynamic map. Go at your own pace, the weekly threads are here to keep us together, not to rush you.
Start by telling us where you're coming from: brand new to the piece, halfway there, or coming back to it? Then post whatever your practice throws up: a clip, a question, a small win, a left hand that won't settle. No clip required. And check in on each other's posts too, we're doing this as a group.
You're among the very first players through this Track, so one question for the week: where did something click for you, and where did it trip you up?
Dates: October 5 – October 30. On Tuesday October 27, 11am PT, Dominic goes live for a deep dive into the piece and your questions, so post them in the weekly threads as you go. We wrap up with a Watch Party on Monday November 2, 11am PT featuring recorded submissions from this challenge: the Prelude, the Fugue, a single section or the whole thing. 🎥
148 replies
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That’s fantastic. I love such challenges. This piece was not on my programm, but why not. And thanks for the score with fingerings. ❣️
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Thank you! Just started the first section. It’s very clear explained and it really motivates to study and improve my technique. Greetings, Erik 🙏
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This is exciting! Thank you for doing this one. I have not done a challenge yet. So, this will be my first! I have been going through the track for the C minor prelude and fugue (as it is one of my favorites) and found it beneficial. I also agree with Juan about the harmonic reduction. That has proved very helpful in practicing the prelude.
I look forward to hearing others play this piece and to completing this four-week challenge!
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I've been thinking it was time to jump into another challenge! I learned and performed this prelude and fugue many years ago -- maybe 20+ years ago. I'm excited to join!
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Hello fellow pianists!
I am really excited to join this challenge. I had started working on the prelude a few weeks ago and then took a break. This challenge is the motivation I needed to start practicing again and hopefully stay focused for the whole month!
I found the harmonic reduction particularly helpful for this piece. I tried an approach that I found interesting: I practiced playing the piece looking only at the harmonic reduction and worked out the pattern for each bar from the chords. It helped me understand the piece better without having to follow the score note by note, and it also helped me see why the pattern changes in certain bars.
If anyone else practices in a similar way, I'd love to hear your tips!
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Thanks, Dominic, for setting up this challenge and providing such meticulous guidance. I haven’t played this Prelude and Fugue in about 50 years so it’s great to get it back into my fingers.
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I’ve found my old Henle edition of the WTC I and I also downloaded the Bärenreiter edition from IMSLP to get started with this challenge. Did anyone else notice the difference between the uploaded Tonebase edition with the very useful fingering in bar 18? Henle and Bärenreiter: left hand there is a b flat (not c) written on beat 3; right hand there is a b (not b flat) on the third and 11th note).
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I really appreciate the focus on actively releasing tension in just the first four bars. This prelude is the only piece of music that I have ever learned/played, that resulted in injury and sent me to the orthopedist with tennis elbow. I am approaching the prelude again after many years and with your insights & instructions, I look forward to resurrecting it without pain.
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Hello everyone, I would like to participate in this challenge. I still remember being mesmerized the first time I ever heard this Prelude and Fugue played -- by Walter/Wendy Carlos on the Moog synthesizer on the album "Switched on Bach".
I first learned and played them in 1973 or so. I never fully forgot them after that, being able to play them roughly from time to time when I pulled out the score.
I re-learned/memorized this pair around the year 2000 and performed them in a little class recital for an adult-ed performance seminar at New England Conservatory.
I coincidentally started re-learning and memorizing the pair a few months ago, as part of my current march through the Well Tempered Clavier, with the objective of recording as many of them as I possibly can. And so now it is mostly memorized already, before the Challenge has even started. [lest anyone think I'm a fast learner, that's about 53 years of working on this piece!].
I'm experimenting with the Prelude in particular, playing the main section VERY slowly, as though it were an organ playing sustained notes over muted strings, with a recitative and cadenze by the keyboard at the end. I still have a lot of trouble playing hands together in the Presto section, and I still tighten up way too much when trying to play that section fast.
Looking forward to working with the Tracks. Those have been great learning tools.