Re: How to analysing Bach\'s well-tempered clavier
Ok, well since it's for an exam I'm not going to give all the answers I see outright.
First of all, though, it does follow simple fugue structure, where the subject is stated in one voice after another in the exposition and then here and there throughout the piece. You are aware, aren't you, that episodes are the sections without the subject going on anywhere? And that the countersubject is the subsidiary melody you hear in each voice AFTER it states the subject?
Ok, here are some questions to ask yourself as you look at this piece:
1. How many voices does it have? How many voices do MOST WTC fugues have? (How does it compare to the others in number of voices?)
2. The subject of this fugue is pretty chromatic, right? How does it compare to many of the other fugues in terms of degree of chromaticism? What is the overall effect of this chromaticism?
3. How might he have derived the countersubject from the subject itself? (Try looking at individual motives from the subject, and consider them in diminution, augmentation, inversion, etc.)
4. The second time we hear the subject in the exposition (in the soprano) it is not a strict imitation of the original subject. In this permutation, there is a VERY unusual melodic feature where Bach breaks one (or maybe two) of the usual rules of voice leading in a very striking way. What am I referring to?
5. Are there sections of the piece that are less chromatic than the subject would seem to require, and what is the overall effect of such possible contrasts?
I hope these questions help to get started. . .if you want to discuss this, I'll be happy to go further with this, but I don't want to give you my own analysis outright. (I haven't learned this piece, anyhow, so I'm just analyzing off the top of my head right now.)
