Prelude and Fugue in F minor
About this arrangement
This is No. 12 in Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier, compiled around 1722. The fugue subject moves through ten chromatic notes, and once the answer comes in, all twelve notes of the chromatic scale have been heard.
Learn the fugue subject by itself first, then mark where it enters in each of the four voices. Practise pairs of voices before playing all four, and loop the densest bars at 50%.
Start with short loops.
Use the section list as a practice map. Start at 50% tempo, loop one section, then return to the full piece once the hand shape feels stable.
Choose Right or Left to focus on one hand. Wait for note checks the highlighted notes as you play them on the screen or a connected MIDI keyboard.
Before you practice.
01 How hard is Bach's Prelude and Fugue in F minor?
The prelude is manageable for an intermediate player, but the four-voice fugue is advanced: you often hold one note while other voices move in the same hand.
02 How long is BWV 857?
Our score has 80 bars in total: the prelude is 22 bars and the fugue is 58, one of the longer fugues in Book 1.
03 What should I practise first?
Start with the prelude to get used to the key and the voice-leading. For the fugue, learn the chromatic subject on its own before you work through the entries.
04 What makes the F minor fugue unusual?
Its subject is almost entirely chromatic. Together with the answer it covers all twelve notes, something that happens elsewhere in Book 1 only in the final B minor fugue.