Hi everyone,

It took me about a week to master Bach's Prelude no. 1 BWV 846. Then I started learning the fugue. It is much more difficult. Any pointers on learning the piece?

Another observation is that I've came across 2 different versions of Prelude no.1. One version plays only one note per half note with the left hand and the other version plays 2 notes per quater note in the left hand. How can this be?


Still yet another observation. I notice that one version of the fugue started out with 2 treble clefs with the left hand playing the lower clef. The other version started with an elevation of the left hand on the treble leaving the bass clef with whole note rests! My teacher told me the Peterson editions are the correct ones.

Explain please.

This fugue is not one of the most difficult in the WTC, but it is deceptive and by no means easy. You dive right into the deep of Bach's polyphonic universe. I have no other tips than to persevere, and listen to others playing it, making sure you are aware of all the voices. If it feels horribly difficult (which I can imagine if the prelude took you a week...) you may want to practice some easier Bach first, specificaly the little preludes, fughettas, and 2-part inventions.

I am not aware of different 'versions' of this prelude and fugue (except that some old editions may have an extra bar inserted for the sake of Gounod's Ave Maria). You may want to post a screenshot of both.
But it seems like your teacher knows which one is the right one.

This should give you some reading material and insight:

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/wtc/i01.html#movie