03/17/2025
Congratulations 🥳🥳🥳 and kudos to Lura Johnson Pianist on the release of The Art of Prelude and Fugue, a bold and brilliant recording of the complete Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach ALONG WITH the complete Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues! This is a major undertaking and we are so excited to listen to it in its glorious entirety! Lura has performed on our series countless times and is one of the great talents of Baltimore's rich musical community.
In addition, we'd like to note that Lura worked with our amazing sound engineer, Andrew Bohman, in the recording process! Andrew is the production director for all of our livestreams and the reason they sound so darn good.
We hope you'll support Lura (and Andrew!) by purchasing the album or by listening to it on one of the streaming services she's listed in the link below. 😍🎹🎼
Welcome to The Art of Prelude and Fugue
Daily Guided Tour, Episode 1
My recent album, The Art of Prelude and Fugue, contains 144 tracks and over 7 hours of intense music.
This is a lot of material for anyone to digest.
So here, every day, I'm going to take you by the hand and show you the amazing connections between Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, one segment at a time.
Today's segment - Tracks 1-4
Duration: 11 minutes
1. Prelude in C Major, BWV 846 – Johann Sebastian Bach
2. Prelude in C Major, Op. 87, No. 1 – Dmitri Shostakovich
3. Fugue in C Major, Op. 87, No. 1 – Dmitri Shostakovich
4. Fugue in C Major, BWV 846 – Johann Sebastian Bach
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube:
https://open.spotify.com/album/5Yr9JR8z48ces0awXbtJWW?si=5E-zdd8ORKyYUcVXcb-wVQ
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-art-of-prelude-fugue/1795822089
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kIxw2CdXOSpim4C6KSoYLLSryk8veDvKc
I highly recommend using high quality headphones or a good speaker, if you have them.
A Listening Guide
Intended for the musician and the non-musician alike, this whimsical, informal Listening Guide is meant to provide valuable insight into technical details of composition, historical context, and some insight into my own personal interpretations, as well as (crucially) the reasoning behind my curating decisions.
Bach Prelude in C Major, BWV 846: This prelude is not just well-known; it iconically represents Bach’s keyboard music. A toccata-like harmonic improvisation builds to a long dominant pedal point. Probably written for the organ. Imagine how great those low octaves would sound in the pedals. Your sternum would shake! (That’s why I doubled them.)
Shostakovich Prelude in C Major, Op. 87, No. 1: Begins with the exact same five notes as Bach’s C Major Prelude, only they are played as a simultaneity and transformed into the rhythm of the Baroque dance, the sarabande.
Shostakovich Fugue in C Major, Op. 87, No. 1: Serene, peaceful, objective. Highly vocal.
Bach Fugue in C Major, BWV 846: The subject divides neatly into three parts; the first one a smoothly rising scale, then three leaps, then the same scale, falling. Objective, appropriately ecumenical for C Major, but playful.
Download the PDF for free here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aFEWIrvIpEVKirV37VASnIPFxqr54Dke/view?fbclid=IwY2xjawJFAfBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUPoyJy0B5sqompxlB8Luk0twpjfSqngLWyPTRexnv7uRanFRgcFc1VX-w_aem_sxGUC2YBhLyhlkrbo6Q64w
Or support this work by purchasing from me directly a beautiful glossy print version that you can hold in your hands, or the flash drive with all the music files!
https://music.lurajohnson.com/pre-order
Finally, consider joining my community, if you haven’t already!
My mission is to bring healing and beauty to this confused world. If that resonates with you, join me!
https://music.lurajohnson.com
See you right back here tomorrow at facebook.com/lurajohnsonpianist and Facebook.com/lurajohnson for the next episode!
If you’re loving this, join the community!
https://music.lurajohnson.com/
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