The 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 by Dmitri Shostakovich is a set of 24 piano pieces, one in each of the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. While the musical style and ideas are Shostakovich's own, it follows the form of Frederic Chopin's Op. 28 preludes.
Each piece is in two parts: a prelude; and a fugue woven from a musical idea taken from the prelude. The pieces vary in pace, length and complexity (for example, Fugue No. 13 in F-sharp major is in five voices, but Fugue No. 9 in E major is in only two voices). Unlike Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, in which the pieces are arranged in parallel major/minor pairs ascending the chromatic scale (C major, C minor, C sharp major, C sharp minor etc.), Shostakovich's set proceeds in relative major/minor pairs around the circle of fifths: first C major, then A minor, G major, E minor, D major, B minor, and so on, ending with D minor. (Frédéric Chopin's set of 24 Preludes, Op. 28, is organised in the same way, as are the earlier sets of preludes by Joseph Christoph Kessler and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.)
References to and quotations from Bach's cycle appear in many of the later pieces. There are also many references and musical ideas taken from Shostakovich's own work. The complete work takes about two and a half hours to play.
After the Second World War, Dmitri Shostakovich was Russia's most prominent composer. Although out of favour with the Soviet Communist Party, he was still sent abroad as a cultural ambassador. One such trip was to Leipzig in 1950 for a music festival marking the bicentennial of J. S. Bach's death.
As part of the festival, Shostakovich was asked to sit on the judging panel for the first International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. One of the entrants in the competition was the 26-year-old Tatiana Nikolayeva from Moscow. Though not required by competition regulations, she had come prepared to play any of the 48 preludes and fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier on request. She won the gold medal.
Inspired by the competition and impressed by Nikolayeva's playing, Shostakovich returned to Moscow and started composing his own cycle of 24 preludes and fugues. Shostakovich worked fairly quickly, taking only three days on average to write each piece. As each was completed he would ask Nikolayeva to come and visit him in his Moscow apartment where he would play her the latest piece.
The complete work was written between 10 October 1950 and 25 February 1951. Once finished, Shostakovich dedicated the work to Nikolayeva, who undertook the public premiere in Leningrad on 23 December 1952. Shostakovich wrote out all the pieces without many corrections except the B-flat minor prelude, which he was dissatisfied with and replaced what he had begun initially.
In unbroken chords and a haunting melody Shostakovich nevertheless evokes the immortal first Prelude of the 48. The tone is wistful, mostly pianissimo and the harmonic language is very much Shostakovich's own, though not a note is out of place. The tone continues in the Fugue; whereas Bach begins with a scaled 4th, Shostakovich has a bleak bare 5th. In contrast to the characteristic harmonic complexity of the prelude, the fugue is written in the purest C major, without a single accidental.
The prelude is a toccata mostly for one voice, with semiquavers running through in the style of a perpetuum mobile. It is followed by a three-part fugue with a characteristic theme of sevenths and acciaccaturas.
The Prelude in G is composed of a juxtaposition of a pesante theme and a lighter quicker theme. The following fugue is the only one set in 6/8 time, although this meter is also shared by the F-sharp Major Prelude.
The prelude begins with an eighth-note appoggiatura figuration phrased in pairs between a sustained cantus firmus in the bass and a lyrical melody in the soprano. There is a consistent legato/half-staccato phrasing throughout the prelude in which Shostakovich attempts to imitate Baroque period phrasing.
Following the prelude, Shostakovich proceeds directly to the fugue without pause. The fugue is a double fugue in four voices with two distinct subjects developed in separate expositions. The first subject is a slow stepwise melody consisting mostly of half notes and quarter notes, while the second subject is a partial diminution or variation on the first subject (eighth notes instead of quarter notes). About two-thirds into the fugue, Shostakovich brings back the original subject in the bass combined with the second subject in the soprano. The E Minor Fugue is one of progressive complexity. The composition begins rather humbly with a quiet, conservative exposition, but it ends triumphantly with nearly every possible fugal device (invertible counterpoint, stretto, double stretto, diminution, augmentation, retrograde) exploited in the final bars.
Beginning much like a French overture (dotted rhythms) this prelude remains very tonal throughout. The bass plays has much of the melodic content - again a device used by Bach in his 48 preludes and fugues. The following fugue starts with a short introduction. It then continues in a gentle weaving fashion (much like the C sharp minor fugue from Book one of Bach's 48). Much of the piece uses a counter melody against the fugal entries.
The A major prelude is a two-part invention that begins with a tonic pedal and a cheerful, delicate motif that almost could have come from Bach’s quill. Amazingly, the fugue contains no vertical dissonances whatsoever, instead creating harmonic motion by sporadically touching on unrelated keys such as B flat major, D flat major, and C major. While there is little in the way of thematic or textural development, the piece oozes charm, and the final cadence comes all too soon.
The three-voice fugue begins with a statement of the main theme, or subject, in the soprano voice. While fugal subjects usually use stepwise motion, this subject uses only the notes of the A major triad. This subject is then stated a fourth below in the alto, as would be expected in a Baroque fugue. After a brief interplay between the soprano and alto, the bass is introduced with a statement of the subject, completing the exposition. The modulatory section begins in the minor key; a brief return to the tonic key provides a breath of calm before an increasingly frenzied series of modulations. These lead to a climax in A major, signalled by a dominant pedal, but this lasts just four bars before the music plunges into C major. The music then settles down, gently leading to the recapitulation, where a single statement of the subject in the tonic key brings the piece to a close.
Short piece, very agitated in nature. Staccato and chromatics add to the chilling nature of the melody.
A fugue in two voices.
A fugue in five voices.
The prelude is a brusque waltz typical of Shostakovich. The opening theme resembles "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". The date of the composition (20 December) may explain this. The fugue is a tour de force of chromatic writing. The subject contains 11 of the 12 semitones available.
Hear example below
This double fugue shares a key signature and several features with the last fugue from Bach's The Art of Fugue.
The pieces were not well received by the Soviet critics when Shostakovich first played the Preludes and Fugues at a special meeting for the Union of Composers in May 1951. The critics expressed great displeasure at the dissonance in some of the fugues. They also objected to the fugue in Soviet music because it was considered too Western and archaic.
Music critic Alex Ross considers this work as produced by the ‘other Shostakovich’. According to the writer, the composer used chamber forms in the period to channel his most personal compositions, those that would not be suitable for use or approval by the Soviet Government. This piece is included in that group along with several string quartets.