The Del Fuego Duo, Danika Sakulin and Aleksandra Babenko, play the Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 847, by Johann Sebastian Bach in a version for two guitars. They recorded it as part of our Siccas Media programme.
About the Prelude and Fugue
BWV 847 is the second prelude and fugue in the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Bach dated that book 1722. It contains a prelude and a fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys, written, in his words, for musical youth eager to learn and for the pastime of those already skilled. Twenty years later he compiled a second book of the same kind, and the two books together are known as the 48.
The prelude is 38 bars long. For most of it both hands run in sixteenth notes in the form of broken chords, while the harmony moves and changes key. At bar 34 a coda breaks the pattern with a sudden change of texture and tempo, and the prelude ends on a major chord. The fugue is 31 bars long and written for three voices. Its two-bar subject starts in the middle voice, returns in the top voice in G minor and then in the bass in C minor. Like the prelude, it closes on a major chord.
Keyboard Bach on Two Guitars
Bach wrote this music for one player at a keyboard. On guitars the two hands can be shared between two players, which gives each running line room to breathe and lets the three voices of the fugue be divided between two instruments. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco even wrote his own cycle of 24 preludes and fugues for two guitars as a homage to Bach, which you can hear in our article on the AEON Guitar Duo.
For the music Bach did write for plucked strings, see our article on the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998, which Ricardo Gallen recorded for our channel, and our Bach repertoire guide. If you want to hear how a whole programme of Bach sounds on the guitar, watch Kanahi Yamashita's concert, which places the Lute Suite BWV 997 next to Tansman's Inventions in homage to Bach.
Watch the Performance
Browse the repertoire in our overview of famous classical guitar pieces, or find your own instrument in our range of classical guitars.
