I have a question for the pianists who have experience playing Bach Fugues:

What method do you use to tackle a fugue? I've been working on the A-flat Prelude and Fugue from Book I (#17). The Prelude came pretty easily, but the fugue I have been struggling with. I went ahead and analyzed the voices (4 part fugue) and highlighted the theme and which voice it's in. Currently, I'm having problems just learning the notes, I'm going through slowly and doing lots of repetition but for some reason in half an hour I only manage 2 bars of music. Although the fugue is only 34 bars, I want to find a more effective way to practice and learn this fugue.

Thanks in advance!

Considering your current repertoire I cannot see any necessity to 'highlight the theme'. The thematic material should become evident as you sight-read. In Bach's day that would be the point. Tovey marks it tranquillo. My guess is it's from a chorale.

Try playing the entire piece with the soprano voice brought out the loudest. Then play the entire piece with the alto voice brought out. Then play the entire piece with the tenor voice brought out. Then ditto the bass. This voice-by-voice emphasis technique works pretty much with any contrapuntal music.

When you bring out each voice, you can see where each phrase begins and ends, and notice the ties and syncopations that you didn't see before. You can also find good fingering for legato, etc.

Just some general comments. That fugue (A-flat major) shouldn't be that difficult...

i always find Bach music is difficult to memorize, fugues and many preludes as well. basically, analysis on a fugue may help you on getting an idea of its structure, but won't help you much on memorizing the notes. i'm now working on a prelude (WTC1 6), and like you, going extremely slow to even learning the notes. i don't even know what's an easy way to learn Bach myself.

Fugues are fun, my piano teacher thinks i'm crazy for thinking this. I'm currently working on the Beethoven op.110 (which has two fugues) and Bach P & F no. 6 in d minor from WTC II...lots and lots of fugueing!

Anyway I like to analyze my fugues before I start learning and then I learn one voice at a time and then add the next voice in and then the next. Sometimes you can even break it down into very small groups and just add on to them as you learn them.

I played no.17 as part of my Grade 8, and i think the best advice i can give you is to look very closely at the time values of the notes especially those which are layered on top of others, as there is a lot of holding notes while changing others. As well as this, you say you've analysed the piece, where you see the subject or theme make this prominent and bring it out from the rest of the music, especially when it is hidden in the alto, tenor or bass parts. Hope this has helped

I'm also learning this and like you had a reasonably easy go of the prelude and am slow with the fugue. My teacher felt it was best that I approach it strictly hands separately until I can play each hand fluently on its own. (She has also had me note the themes where they occur so I'll know where to bring them out when I start hands together) I usually like to get both hands going together as soon as possible but am realizing the value in taking this one slowly. I've also found it helpful to adhere religiously to the suggested fingering. Good luck!

Can you explain why it takes you so long? Figuring out the fingering? Have you tried one of the many good editions that have fingerings?

It makes no sense to me that this piece would cause so much difficulty for you since the rest of your repertoire is so much harder. I looked at your videos and you're considerably more advanced than me, but I played quite a few fugues from the WTC(almost 50 years ago) without the struggles you've described.

Yes, it puzzled me a little too. Classicalist, when you say you are having trouble "learning the notes" are you talking about memorising them? Or reading them? Are you able to just read through this fugue? If the way you learn something is to memorise it bar by bar and not read it (as I have heard some people describe their method), then I'd say there's your problem!
I think a Bach fugue needs a lot of reading before you concentrate on memorising it.

my teacher taught me a method that really helps for learning pieces that are difficult to read.

playing one measure at a time and adding the first beat of the next measure... measure by measure with that added extra beat of the next measure.. i do this with a slow metronome, resting for a the rest of the measure before i start the next one.

it really helps, particularly with difficult Bach pieces. Of course this is just for learning the notes.

I like this Fugue. When I learned it, I learned the entire thing hands separate. There are a lot of coordination issues (especially in the second half) that you don't want to have to worry about when you still are unable to play the notes. Once you're able to play it comfortably hands separate, coordinating the hands together is not so difficult. Also, finding good fingerings is very important in this fugue.

Classicalist - Currawong may be on to something !! Are you having difficulty reading the music - or memorizing it? In other words - can you play the fugue up to speed while reading the music (assuming you've worked out the fingering etc.)???? If not - that's a skill you really need to cultivate. The more you play the piece from the printed score - the easier it will be to memorize - and also visualize when you are away from the piano. Listening to a good recording of the fugue will also help.

Thanks for the suggestions! It's been puzzling me too. For some reason, this particular Fugue is just causing me a bunch of headaches. Especially once I hit bar 13. It's particularly reading the music that's been giving me a whole bunch of trouble. I'm typically a good sight-reader but for some reason, just learning it is taking quite noticeably longer.

I think, I might just be over thinking it and trying to do too much with a fugue that I don't have under my hands yet. The considerable hard part for me is when the subject is played in both hands for example bar 13 I think (I don't have my score here, I'll double check tomorrow).

Currawong: I'm not trying to memorize it yet. I usually work on a new piece by breaking it up into sections and then after I have the piece down, I start memorizing by whichever way I find suitable for the piece.

But my problems may just be stemming out from the fact that I haven't had much experience playing Preludes and Fugues before.

You need to work on them hands seperately and slowly. I found this to be the best way because I too am also an excellent sight reader, and this drove me crazy because my hands would get confused.


John