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Fugue in F minor (WTC 2 No. 12), BWV 881

17422 min

This guide follows Bach’s Fugue in F minor (WTC 2 No. 12), BWV 881 (1742) in one part (fugue).

Recording: Thomas Schwan (piano) (2022)

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FugueFugue0:00–1:47

A fugue in three voices, simple in construction. The has the shape of a , a lively dance, and two parts: a three-note preceded by a downward leap from the fifth step of the scale, heard twice, first over the home harmony and then over the , followed by a smooth line moving twice as fast. Episodes, passages without the full , dominate and keep echoing the three-note , sometimes faking an . The sections are the , the and the .

Section boundaries in music are not always sharp; a transition may be felt over a pause or a held chord.

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In the catalog

Johann Sebastian BachKeyboardBaroque periodF minorFugue

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