Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710–1784) · sheet music
- Time 2/4
- Levels 7
- Passages 1
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German classical (1710–1784). The reading release has 1 passage from this piece at level 7; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–8 for both hands together.
The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 7.
Your practice path
Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8.
- Hands together · bars 1–8 level 7
How to play Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8
- Tempo:Choose a moderate tempo at which you can hear each voice clearly; a fugue loses its meaning if the entries are rushed.
- Right hand:The treble's opening line falls by half steps in long notes; count them fully and play each accidental cleanly so the chromatic descent is audible.
- Left hand:The bass enters very early with running eighth notes; practice it alone until it is steady, since it is an equal partner and not an accompaniment.
- Hands together:Bring the hands together slowly and listen to each line separately; use the highest and lowest voice as your anchors.
- Fingering:Fingering matters more in contrapuntal music than in accompaniment: plan it so each voice stays smooth and connected.
- Pedal:Sans pédale refers to the organ pedalboard, but on piano keep the sustain pedal to a minimum anyway, so the chromatic line and the moving bass stay distinct; connect the notes with your fingers.
- Practice:Mark each entry of the subject in pencil, then practice emphasizing it slightly each time it appears in either hand.
Common mistakes
- Cutting the long notes of the chromatic line short while the bass moves. Fix: Hold each long treble note for its full value and listen to it against the eighth notes below.
- Smudging the texture with the sustain pedal. Fix: Play with little or no pedal and use finger legato to connect each voice.
- Missing natural signs and extra flats in the descending line. Fix: Name each note of the descent before playing; with four flats in the key signature, the naturals and the D-flat are easy to misread.
Structure: fugue (three voices)
A fugue builds a whole piece from a short subject that passes between the voices. This one opens with a slow chromatic descent in the treble, and the bass enters almost at once with a lively countermelody in eighth notes, so two contrasting ideas are heard together from the start. Further entries in other keys follow before the music returns to F minor.
- Exposition · Opening entries
- The treble falls by half steps in long notes while the bass enters with running eighths; read the accidentals in the slow line and keep the bass steady.
- Middle · Episodes and later entries
- The subject material moves through related keys, linked by freer passages; a third voice adds to the texture.
- Close · Return to F minor
- The subject returns in the home key and the fugue ends with a cadence in F minor.
About Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784) was the eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and was famous in his lifetime as an organist and improviser. He held church posts in Dresden and Halle, later lived in Braunschweig and Berlin, and died in poverty.
His Eight Fugues, catalogued as F. 31, were announced in 1778. All eight are in three voices and move through the keys of C major, C minor, D major, D minor, E-flat major, E minor, B-flat major and F minor; this page's fugue is the last of them, in F minor.
The French title, sans pédale, means without pedals: the fugues need no organ pedalboard, and IMSLP notes that copies exist for fortepiano or harpsichord as well as organ. Mozart later arranged this F minor fugue for string trio.
- Mozart's string-trio arrangements K. 404a include this fugue, F. 31 No. 8, paired with a slow prelude.
- According to a review of a modern edition, only one copy of the fugues was produced when they were announced in 1778, and it was presented to Anna Amalia.
- All eight fugues in the set are written in three voices.
- The words sans pédale refer to the organ's pedalboard, not to the piano's sustain pedal.
Why the first passage is level 7
That passage is level 7 rather than 6 because its key signature has 4 sharps or flats, it carries accidentals outside the key, it has syncopated rhythms.
Read one voice at a time: the treble begins alone with a slow chromatic line and the bass joins almost immediately with running eighths, so treat the page as two lines in dialogue.
Questions about Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8
- How hard is Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8 to play?
- Its passages grade from level 7 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 7.
- Is there an easy part of Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8 for beginners?
- Its easiest passage is level 7, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–8 for both hands together, the level-7 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 7 because its key signature has 4 sharps or flats and it carries accidentals outside the key.
- What key and time signature is Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8 in?
- The engraving on this page is in 2/4 time.
- Who composed Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8?
- Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German classical (1710–1784). Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784) was the eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and was famous in his lifetime as an organist and improviser.
- Can I practice Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8 online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the one graded passage from Fugue in F Minor, F. 31 No. 8 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
- Which of the eight fugues is on this page?
- The eighth, in F minor. It is the only F minor fugue in the set, which runs through eight different keys.
- Does it need an organ pedalboard?
- No. Sans pédale means the fugues are playable without pedals, so they work on a manual organ, harpsichord, fortepiano or modern piano.
- Is this fugue in the public domain?
- Yes. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach died in 1784, so the music is in the public domain; some modern editions carry their own editorial copyright.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades one passage of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
- Level 7
- bars 1–8 both hands
More pieces to sight-read
Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.