Paolo Marchettini

24 Preludes and Fugues

I always considered the fugue the most perfect and pure of all musical forms. The possibility to build an entire piece of music from only one main idea represented an intriguing challenge for composers from different times. With this work, which I consider as a whole, I wanted to pay homage to this old, and beloved, form. I tried to infuse it with my personal view, hoping to give a contemporary feeling, still respecting the traditional tonal sense of the keys. Each fugue is preceded by a prelude which is sometimes connected thematically. Following the greatest baroque model, Johann Sebastian Bach, I avoided giving metronome and dynamic indications for the fugues. However, for the preludes I provided tempo and a few dynamic indications, only when I felt it was necessary.

Note on performance: if the preludes and fugues are performed individually, they should be under the title: Prelude and Fugue I; Prelude and Fugue II, etc. It is also possible to indicate the key of each piece.