Friday music slot: Bach's Prelude & Fugue in E Minor "The Wedge"

If you want to know why this Prelude and Fugue for Organ is nicknamed "The Wedge" take a look at the shape made on the stave by the theme of the Fugue.

Repeated runs of broken chords start with the notes similar in pitch so that they appear close together on the stave but the interval in the pitch gets further and further apart and so does the vertical difference between the notes on the page, so that the pattern of notes does look like a wedge. On the score which accompanies this recording you can see the effect for the first time at the start of the Fugue which plays 6 minutes and 36 seconds into the clip.



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