Bach: WTC I Prelude and Fugue No. 24 in b, BWV 869 (D. Jacques Way Harpsichord)

West Point Organist Craig Williams plays the twenty-fourth prelude and fugue in Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Volume I. He concludes the collection with a monumental work, with the Prelude (marked in some editions as Andante) in two parts, both with repeats. The repeats allow the individual 8' stops to be heard on a two-manual harpsichord featuring the contrasting colors of the manual stops casting different shades on Bach's part writing. The prelude is mostly in three voices, with the two upper parts imitating and playing off each other, showing how Bach creates harmonies through a dialogue of melodies. The bass voice is in constant motion, moving through ascending scales and sometimes imitating the voices above it. The mood of the prelude overall is calm, though the motion is steady and consistent throughout. The fugue demonstrates where Bach not only tests the temperament of the keyboard being able to play pieces set in all major and minor keys but also stretching the boundaries of chromatic writing within many of the pieces. The fugue is marked Largo, indicating a grand and expressive approach to the four-voice counterpoint instead of emphasizing technique for technique's sake. The fugue subject itself consists of sigh motifs spread through the octave, with the arches created by the motifs gently ascending to the high point. The countersubject introduced with the answer builds expressive tension through dissonance. After the exposition where the four-voice counterpoint is played out in full chords, a gentle episodic sequence takes over allowing the fugue to retain its expressiveness without maintaining undue harmonic tension. This sequence, with its own built-in modulation (and hinted at in the B section of the prelude) appears in the fugue three times, giving the listener some calm familiarity amid the stark dissonance. Like the prelude, the fugue remains rooted and calm while maintaining continual motion.
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0:00 Prelude
5:47 Fugue