Bach’s Prelude in D minor, BWV 999
Welcome to our very first Study Group — a collaborative, peer-led dive into a beautiful piece of music over the course of two weeks.
We’re kicking things off with Bach’s Prelude in D minor, BWV 999!
This is not a course or a class — it’s a space for mutual exploration, discussion, and shared progress. I’ll be learning the piece alongside you (again — it’s been a while!), and I’m excited to discover new things together.
What to expect:
Between June 9th-20th, we’ll focus on:
Fingerings and technique
Harmonic structure and phrasing
Interpretation and expressive choices
Your own questions and perspectives!
We’ll also meet for two live Zoom sessions to share progress, chat about challenges, and nerd out over all things Bach.
How to participate:
- Sign-Up here!
- Grab your score of BWV 999
- Introduce yourself below!
- Join the prompts and discussion!
- Share your thoughts, ideas, or a clip of your playing!
Zoom Call #1 – June 13th, 9am PST
Zoom Call #2 – June 20th, 9am PST
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In preparation for tomorrow's Zoom meeting I'm sharing with you the score I'm working on with my current ideas for left hand fingerings. What I'm looking for with this is to provide a way to maintain a cohesive articulation, sound texture and proper voicing for the pattern through out the piece. For the right hand I'm damping the thumb on the 2nd beat, to apply the rest, and on each descending eight notes of the last beat to provide a detached articulation while damping m-a on upper strings to apply the rests. I hope you'll find it interesting, feel free to comment!
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Neil Macmillan For sure you can do a slur there, what I'm exposing are my thoughts about the meaning for my own choices, and you're right using the first (ossia) version you have time to lift your first finger for the following mini-barré. Also you can use finger 4 instead of 3 on the C# bass if it helps, it makes finger 3 available earlier for the following B on third string.
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Blaise Laflamme is the F at the bottom of the staff at the beginning of bar 23 supposed to be a low pedal E ? Might be a typo in my original version.
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David Blaise Laflamme According to Tilmann Hoppstock (Bach's Lute Works v.2) The F at the beginning of m. 23 is suppose to be an 'E' and the 'F' on the last beat of m. 23 is supposed to be 'F#'.
"…m. 23 final bass note (2nd half of 3rd beat) Kellner wrote ‘F’ which is the flatted fifth of the B major. The dissonance of the ‘f’ and low ‘e’ in the bass “produces a highly unorthodox dissonance which I don’t remember otherwise having encountered in Bach’s music.” The ‘F’ at the beginning of m. 23 in Kellner’s manuscript combined with the ‘f’ in the final bass note of m 23 creates a double leading tone (F>E) in different octaves, which Hoppstock notes “ is too untypical of Bach’s compositional technique (temporally displaced parallel octaves within minor second of each other!).”
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David your version has the bass E, I changed it to reflect the original manuscript.
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Jack Stewart
I think these are both changes you mentioned. The F# does sound much better than F♮, even in isolation without the voice-leading concerns connecting to bar 24. Thank you for pointing that out.
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Blaise Laflamme I was using a to pluck the D on the high notes of bars 31-34 (no slurring, and remaining in 1st position in the LH), and liked that the RH pattern was conserved through the passage. Then, I changed my approach to utilize the Neidt fingerings suggested in a previous post, shifting up. While this allows for the arpeggio to sustain, the RH pattern is altered and requires the shift. What is your opinion on remaining in 1st position and using a to pluck the D instead of shifting for those bars?
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David My "no-name" score has Low E to start and F Natural at the end in Bar 23. The last two top voice notes are both D with an incidental sharp at the start of the Bar.
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Jack Stewart As we have discussed earlier, the original manuscript makes sense if the F is played as the bass note, breaking the E pedal, but not mixed with the E pedal approach, while the F# makes more sense if played with the E pedal... here's both versions. About the parallel octaves I think the bass should be more considered as a melody line than part of the current 4 voices harmony (3 top voices + bass line), or it would create a 6 voices harmony and then there are multiple parallels octaves even doubling wrong notes and resolutions in that scenario, OTOH as a melody the octave is broken by a G# by using the repeated motive.
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David I think any solution is right as long as it contributes to express and is in line with the musical idea(s) you want to expose. If it breaks your idea(s) for the simple fact that it's easier or more convenient technically, it's probably not the right solution IMHO. As an example why would you want the arpeggio to sustain when in multiple places it's not possible to do (ie: you have to switch position on the last beat and stop the chord sustain), isn't better in that case to always stop the sustain on the last beat and have it all sound in a similar way? I'm not saying this is the solution, but the kind of question you have to ask yourself about what you want or expect as a result to find the right solution, at least that's my approach...
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A favourite part of the Prelude starts at Bar 7. The quarter-note basses descend very pleasingly: D C B Flat to A in Bar 10. Then two bars with G Sharp.
LH fingering can be tricky. In Bar 10, the D A D A in second beat can use 4 2 4 1. Swapping 1 for 2 (for the second 3rd String A) makes it easier to move into Bar 11, with a shift from Position I to Position II.
In Bar 11 use 3 for G Sharp in bass; 4 2 1 for top voice. Third beat can use 2 4 0 4, though the Open D will need to be muted.
Bar 12 starts in same position and fingering as Bar 11. Third beat requires a shift back to Position I for the top G Sharp.
The video shows LH fingering from Bar 10 to partway through Bar 12, (though I'm hitting an A in the opening bass in Bar 12 instead of the G Sharp it's supposed to be).
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I am just joined. I am excited to work on this piece.
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Jonathan Esquibel Welcome to the Study Group!
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Hi everyone, I've tried to play through the entire piece albeit a few missed notes and some clumsy transitions. I was inspired (or tried to copy :) by Riccardo Gallen's rendition of this piece in the original key of C minor. Still a lot to work on both technically and musically. My bass notes sound too muddy, i think because i don't play with thumbnails and my strings are quite old. Criticisms and advice are welcome. Thanks.
oh, i was wondering how to end the piece, especially from the measures that has slurs (starting from measure 31, if i'm not wrong). Do we slowly do some sort of ritardando?
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
