Twenty Four Fugues

Years before Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and into at least the 20th century, composers have been creating sets of pieces in different major and minor keys or modes.

Notable precursive collections are the Ariadne Musica of J.C.F. Fischer, from 1702, and Johann Mattheson's Exemplarische Organisten-Probe from 1719; there are many others. Bach of course was the first to systematically explore all of the twenty four keys. Later composers continued the tradition: Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Shostakovich, and others all wrote sets of preludes in all 24 keys. Shostakovich, Rodion Shchedrin, and Henry Martin have written sets of preludes and fugues.

It's a challenging task, not least because of the incomparably high standard set by Bach in his two sets of preludes and fugues, but it offers composers an opportunity to pay homage to Bach and his influence, and to assess the range of their own voice.

This is an ongoing project.

Look

Fugue I, C Major

Fugue II, A Minor

Fugue III, G Major

Fugue IV, E Minor

Fugue VII, F Minor

Fugue XII, A Flat Major

Fugue XIX, E Flat Major

Fugue XXII, G Minor

Listen