Does anyone know of a list of the pieces in order of their difficulty?

Or to those that have learned a few of the pieces, which did you find the easiest and the most difficult?

I used to have Book 2 in the edition edited by Bartok, which was arranged not in Bach's order, but in order of difficulty (that is, the whole 48 ranked across Bartok's 2 books). (I only realised this when I got the book home and found it had a strange mix of Books 1 and 2). I've long since sold it, but maybe I should have at least kept a copy of his difficulty order. I do remember that I didn't agree with some of his rankings!

I've found the preludes in C major, C minor, E major, and F Sharp minor from book one and G major from book two to be easy enough for me to handle after exposure to the two and three part inventions. As the the most difficult, you'll have to ask others wiser and more informed than me. HTH

(edit) I forgot the B minor preludes. I take them at a slower pace so maybe that makes them more approachable.

I haven't worked on a fugue yet so maybe there are easy fugues. I haven't heard of an easy to play fugue and the concept seems silly so I'll just wait for my own skills to improve.

The E major fugue from the second book is actually relatively easy. I'm sure anyone that has played for more than a year or two would have no trouble with it.

Before the motivation flees I'll hurry beyond haste to try that E major fugue.

Just curious, what does WTC stand for? Guess it isn't World Trade Center.

Well Tempered Clavier volumes 1 & 2 by Johann Sebastian Bach. It's two sets of preludes and fugues in all keys.

Rich

Thank you!

"Relatively easy" is a relative term. I have my doubts that someone who has played for "more than a year or two" - unless "more" means several years more - would readily be able to master a four-voice Bach fugue. Someone playing for that length of time would, I believe, have very limited experience with fugues, and tackling a four-voice fugue would surely be quite a challenge.

Regards,

This is all highly subjective, of course.

For me, the least difficult fugue in WTC is c minor, book I. The three voices are pretty distinct, the ideas are straight-forward, and the piece sort of "plays itself." A good introduction to fugues in general, and much easier, I think, than E major book II (which requires deep, almost ponderous, concentration to faithfully attend to all four of its solemn voices).

Other fugues on the easier side, all with three voices: d minor book I, F# major book I (although it does have 6 sharps), and Bb major book I, which is a little tricky, but fits nicely in the hand.

On the other hand, among the hardest fugues you'll probably find: a minor book I (ruthlessly driving), Bb minor book II (ruthlessly driving and chromatic), and (maybe) b minor book I.

But we'll all have different opinions....

I would have to agree. Also, the prelude would be fairly difficult for a beginner/early intermediate student.

+1. I think that realizing a four-voice composition with full awareness of the individual voices and clarity and transparency in playing is never an easy task. The c minor fugue of book 1 that beet31425 mentioned, was the first WTC fugue I played and I would recommend this, or other 3-voice fugues to WTC beginners.

By the way, Heinrich Neuhaus specifically talks about the E major fugue of book 2 in his "Art of piano playing". He recommends to play this particular fugue 20x, and to suffer painfully each time that the piano cannot sound like a choir, that the sound does not sustain at slow tempo. He asks to do this until one is tempted to throw the notes on the floor out of frustration, but then to take them up again and to start completely from scratch and to strive for the impossible, the sustained choral sound out of the piano. The bottom line he has is that only if you strive for the impossible will you be able to realize everything that is possible on the piano. I wouldn't take this as a literal practice recipe but rather as an account of the big musical difficulties in this piece.

Okay, I'm ready to be flamed here, but actually all of the preludes and fugues in the WTC are difficult in some manner. Even the famous Prelude in C No. 1 in Book 1 has some subtle things that make it difficult. It's not the notes that make it hard, it's the subtle shading to make it musical that make it quite difficult to play nicely.

One of the other observations I've made about playing Bach's preludes and fugues, whether they are in the WTC, Toccatas, or individual, is we play them too fast. For some reason as pianists, we equate Bach's keyboard works as being blazingly fast. This must be a carry over from the Romantic interpretation of his keyboard works.

I'm not adovcating playing these at a real snail's pace, but at a more moderate pace than we're used to hearing them. I had this discussion the other day with a teacher friend of mine. She agreed that the overall speed that people play his works make them sound more mechanical and less musical than they really are. If they were to slow down and enjoy the music, the works wouldn't be as difficult as they seem.

Some food for thought on this. Don't take the editor's metronome markings literally. A metronome didn't exist in Bach's or Scarlatti's time.

John

I agree. Isn't it true that it is difficult to play any music well? I'm currently working on the E major prelude and fugue from WTC book 1. The prelude was easy to learn but I'm now trying to make it beautiful. This requires some concentration to bring out the subtle changes in articulation and emphasis. Just a few examples: the "cello" voice (LH) echos the soprano (RH) and should have a similar articulation. There are places where portato is appropriate and should be consistent throughout the piece. The E major fugue is easier than the F minor book 2 that I completed a few months ago, but it has its challenges too, including bringing it up to the tempo I want (about 66 bpm).



You might want to read "Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard" by Badura-Skoda. His research on "organ barrels" gives weight to playing Bach faster than has been fashionable in the recent past.

You may find this list helpful. It is just a list of where the exam system in the country in which I live places each of the P&Fs in its syllabus. I've grouped them under A,B,C,D - representing the four highest grades in the syllabus, where D is the highest (actually C and D are both performing diplomas).

Bear in mind that not everyone will agree with the listings. Also, don't assume that all the pieces in category B are identical in their technical and/or interpretative demands, for example. But it may be helpful as a guide .
The lists themselves are not in order of difficulty, just the four categories A B C D, least difficult to most difficult.

A
Book 1
2 - C minor
6 - D minor
16 - G minor
21 - B flat major

Book 2
2 - C minor
7 - E flat major
9 - E major
15 - G major


B
Book 1
1 - C major
5 - D major
9 - E major
10 - E minor
11 - F major
14 - F# minor
17 - A flat major
18 - G# minor
22 - B flat minor
23 - B major

Book 2
24 - B minor


C
Book 1
13 - F# major
15 - G major
19 - A major

Book 2
1 - C major
3 - C# major
6 - D minor
11 - F major
12 - F minor
19 - A major
20 - A minor


D
Book 1
3 - C# major
4 - C# minor
7 - E flat major
8 - E flat minor
12 - F minor
20 - A minor
24 - B minor

Book 2
4 - C# minor
5 - D major
8 - D# minor
10 - E minor
13 - F# major
14 - F# minor
16 - G minor
17 - A flat major
18 - G# minor
21 - B flat major
22 - B flat minor
23 - B major

To echo currawong's list, here is how the RCM (Toronto) categorizes the Preludes and Fugues for the final three examinations: Grade 9, Grade 10, and ARCT Diploma :

Grade 9 :
Book I :
- C minor

Grade 10 :
Book I :
- D major
- D minor
- E major
- E minor
- F major
- F sharp major
- F sharp minor
- G minor
- A flat major
- G sharp minor
- B flat major
- B major

Book II :
- C major
- C minor
- C sharp major
- D minor
- E flat major
- D sharp minor
- E major
- E minor
- F minor
- G major
- A major
- A minor
- B minor

ARCT diploma in piano performance :
Book I :
- C major
- C sharp major
- C sharp minor
- E flat major
- D sharp minor
- F minor
- G major
- A major
- A minor
- B flat minor
- B minor

Book II:
- C sharp minor
- D major
- F major
- F sharp major
- F sharp minor
- G minor
- A flat major
- G sharp minor
- B flat major
- B flat minor
- B major

Regards,

Thank you Currawong and BruceD. I've filed them in my computer for future reference.

Marice Hinson's Pianists Guide to the Repertoire lists the order from Bartok's edition. You can find this book available free online at http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/iol/

For ease of reference, here is the list. (A lone arabic number refers to book I)

Volume I
15/II
6
21
10
20/II
11
2
9
13
21/II
6/II
19/II
11/II
19
14
18
2/II
5
7
14/II
7/II
1
17
13/II

Volume II
15
12/II
1/II
24/II
10/II
16
5/II
18/II
24
9/II
4/II
23
3/II
12
3
8/II
22
17/II
4
8
20
22/II
16/II
23/II

Good thing I looked this up while searching for books for Deborah's book list.

Rich

I guess I'm a little slow, but it took me some time to figure out that :

Volume I and Volume II refer to the order of the Preludes and Fugues in Bartok's two-volume edition, while the single number refers to the First Book of the WTC and the II refers to the Second Book of the WTC. Is that right?

Regards,

That's right, BruceD.

Maybe we should throw in a couple more secret codes to keep it interesting.

How about B for Bartok's numbering scheme. R for RCM. A for AEMB.

Rich