Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner What was your first WTC?

So, I'm at the place where I've played enough of the "simpler" Bach pieces [let's be honest, despite their apparent simplicity, even the inventions are hard to play well] that my teacher is going to let me play something from the WTC. I'm currently in that process of listening through each one and picking out the ones that really stick out as something I'd like to learn and then choosing out of those. I'm kinda feeling like a slower one right now since everything else I'm playing is quite fast...

But, I was curious what other peoples first experience with the WTC was. The classic first WTC is the Cm from book one, but I'm sure some people here went a little bit crazier than that. Anyways, I'm just curious. So, go!

P.S. I'm new here, but like my status says, I'm a piano/composition major and found these forums while doing some internet browsing and thought it could be a fun place to talk music with people I'll never actually meet!

My first one was Book II no.12 F minor, pretty easy, sounds pretty nice. My second one was Book I no.16 G minor, again not too hard, sounds conventional and pretty nice.

C minor, WTCI followed by D major WTCI, C major WTCII, F minor WTCII, A-flat WTCI, E-flat, WTCII. Thinking about doing the g minor from WTCII this summer.

The first one I remember (not the same as actually being the first one) was D maj, Book I. Yikes! Why did my teacher do that to me? I'll never know, but it wasn't a very good experience at the time. I love it now, though.

I don't recall the first set I learned, but one of my proudest achievements is including both books in my rep.

Bravo. Quite an achievement!

As in MEMORIZED?

Mine was also Book 2 F minor. Pretty standard intro to WTC. You might also try Book 2 Eb. The fugue is slow and is a very approachable introduction to 4-voice fugues.

F# major from Book 1

(cool thread!)

second: D minor from Book 2


Would love to be able to say the same.

And how about another question....
Favorite fugue: D major from Book 1

Curious to see the Book II F minor's. I find that fugue quite difficult and awkward, at least at the speed I would like it to go.

In high school I was assigned some of the easier pieces: C minor fugue Book I, E major prelude Book I. The first prelude and fugue pair I played was after my musical awakening, senior year, Bb major Book I. The summer before college I learned A minor Book II and G# minor Book II, and I kept going from there without looking back....


-Jason

I started at the beginning - the C major from book I. There's a version of Ave Marie arranged for the prelude (by Gounod I think) that I used to play with my teacher. A very fond memory.

no such thing

If there were really no such thing, then it would follow that all of the pieces are exactly the same level of difficulty.

Surely we can say that some pieces are "easier" than others, without admitting that any are actually "easy".

-J

Technically correct!

I still say:



It's like when people ask, "What's the easiest Chopin Ballade?"


No, I would reserve the word easy for other situations.

I mean, suppose someone asked, "Who was the worst great composer?" Would you say, well someone has to be the worst, or else they'd all be equal?

Just sayin'.

The C major prelude is easier than the C sharp major prelude!

Book 2 number 2 in Cm was the first and only (and just the prelude)

Stop! Stop! You're killing me!

Though I sort of know what you mean. But what is the easiest Chopin Ballade?

No! Noooooooo! Make it stop!!!!

BTW, #3

I always thought everyone started with the C minor from book one. That was certainly the case with me.

The C minor from book two came later along with others such as the Bb in book one (great fun) and the F minor -as mentioned above- from book two.

The hardest for me was the G major from book one, the prelude being a rather nasty piece of business. Ouch.