Prelude & Fugue No. 12 in F Minor

Whether or not Bach intended to mark the midpoint of Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier with a substantial Prelude and Fugue, No. 12 is certainly a serious statement. The expressive, flowing Prelude sets the thoughtful, melancholy tone—the key of F minor would allow nothing else. The movement takes on the character of a sober allemande, though Bach uses more precise notation than usual to ensure a sustained (legato) tone and to clarify the complex four-part texture. The texture of the Fugue is denser still: hard for the player to disentangle, and harder still for the listener. When we hear the theme for the movement stated baldly at the opening, it sounds intense, impenetrable and almost avant-garde as it slithers in micro (chromatic) steps between notes. But Bach makes majestic, if slightly chilling, capital out of its angularity, allowing it to return triumphantly in the bass at the very end. About J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book I If we had to choose the most influential of Bach’s works in the centuries since his death, the biggest votes would probably go to the St Matthew Passion and The Well-Tempered Clavier. The epithet “well-tempered” refers to “equal temperament”—a new method of tuning keyboard instruments, which made a wide range of keys available. Bach showed off these possibilities in two books of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, which is why the collection is sometimes known as the “48”. Partly drawing on earlier works, Bach completed Book 1 around 1722, and Book 2 20 years later, constantly revising both. He intended the pieces to be useful to players of all types of keyboard instrument.