This is the first part of a three-part tutorial dealing with Bach’s Fuga, BWV 1003, in A Minor.

As we progress through the pieces in the Sonatas and Partitas, we see more and more development insofar as the complexities of Bach’s compositional strategies; and arriving at the second of the three fugues in the present collection, this becomes apparent.

This video discusses just the opening section of the A-minor Fuga. It is fascinating to view this music in terms of it being a concerto fugue.

A concerto normally has an orchestra and one or more soloists; Bach, yet again, proves his virtuosity as a composer in this Fuga, where a lone violinist first plays as an orchestra, then as a duet, and then as an improvisatory soloist. The video shows how Bach introduces these elements in a way that sets him up for the monumental piece that will follow.

Parts two and three of this tutorial will show how Bach then uses these materials to build a fugue of monumental proportions, full of Affekt and rhetoric.

See Part two
and Part three