Bach: WTC I, Prelude and Fugue in G minor

The Prelude has such a charming motif that one wonders, if Bach were alive now, would he be writing pop tunes for Katy Perry?

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Of course, in the pop song version we wouldn't have quite so distant a harmonic effect as Bach does in m. 17 where he follows a diminished chord on E natural (which should resolve to F) by a deceptive resolution on D minor, which quickly turns to D major, providing a nice V7-i cadence. He then gives us another cadence over a tonic pedal, just to be sure.

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But it's all really charming.

The fugue is just an excellent fugue in four voices with a proper sort of subject and countersubject. Bach gives us the four voices in the exposition then has a brief episode that leads to restatement of the subject in all voices in B flat. Another episode follows taking us to C minor with two statements of the subject. The next episode returns us to G minor and there is a stretto in three voice at a half-note separation. One last statement of the subject in the alto and we are done. Here is that stretto, starting in the soprano in m. 28:

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Here is Sviatoslav Richter's performance with the score: