We’re getting closer to the end of our journey through the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier! Today, let’s examine the sets in B flat minor and B major, in the version by Christine Schornsheim, whom we’ve heard a couple of times already in this cycle, playing the beautiful Johannes Ruckers harpsichord built in 1624. We’re in really remote territory at this point… five flats first, and then five sharps… with one more stop to go before coming full circle.

B flat minor

This prelude is in cut-time and projects a somewhat solemn and serene mood. It features 3 voices, with a theme that alternates scales in eighths with intervals in quarters, with these elements used equally among the voices. There is an interesting disruption to this setup towards the end, with the top two voices joining on an ascending pattern in eighths over a pedal point, which serves as the beginning of a coda.

The fugue is extremely interesting and it suggests Bach at his most scholarly. It’s built on a long and complex subject that includes four independent and very characteristic cells, separated by rests. This makes the theme easy to discover either in its original form or when inverted or treated in stretto throughout the piece, and anywhere in the deep texture of the four voices.

B major

The B major prelude is reminiscent of an Italian concerto, with passages that resemble an instrumental “tutti”, particularly when the third voice enters, and sections featuring a soloist that emerges from the ensemble. Some of the 16th note passages even seem to be imitating violin bariolages.

At first, Bach seemed to be looking back at the masters of the Renaissance polyphony and their “stilo antico” as he opened this 4-voice fugue, with the severe theme in half notes and wide intervals. However, he didn’t keep this going for very long! The countersubject that enters after 20 bars or so, all in eighths, breaks the illusion and pushes the timeline forward by a few centuries.