Fugue no. 13 en Fa Dièse Majeur, BWV.882
Baroque Fugue Piano solo ~6 min
In brief

This F-sharp major fugue projects a bright, transparent drive where subjects answer clearly and contrapuntal continuity creates sustained rhythmic tension rather than overt drama. Technically you will need to focus on Polyphony in three or more voices (4.4/5) by maintaining independence of lines — that means supporting one voice while articulating the others, balancing touch and articulation — and on Harmonic analysis (4.4/5) to anticipate progressions and to shape dynamics and voicing at modulations and cadences. The piece belongs to the Baroque period and is part of Bach's central contrapuntal keyboard repertoire, where the fugue occupies a key place in his compositional output.

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  • Play — Bach: Prelude & Fugue No. 13 in F-sharp major, BWV 882 · arika002 (the player loads on click)

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Sheet music

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MusicCoach difficulty
71/100
Advanced
Likely range : 65–77/100
Confidence : 62% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 7 to 8

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Difficulty sources
Henle Verlag
6
62/100 normalised · 4 obs.
Henle Verlag
7
74/100 normalised · 4 obs.
Relative difficulty
92%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
86%
Era Baroque
74%
Genre
Estimated skills
Theory
Harmonic analysis
2
Technique
Three-or-more-voice polyphony
2
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
1
Style
Baroque style
1
Technique
Hand independence
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

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