Fugue no. 15 en Sol Majeur, BWV.884
Baroque Fugue Piano solo ~6 min
In brief

The Fugue in G major BWV 884 unfolds in a bright, buoyant manner where the bouncing subject and countersubjects create a continuous conversational flow rather than a single lyrical line. Technically, you will face notably the demand for Analyse harmonique (4.4/5), which requires quickly identifying the modulatory progressions to plan fingerings and phrasing, and Polyphony for three voices or more (4.4/5), which calls for independent control of lines through differentiated touch and precise detachments to maintain voice clarity. The piece belongs to Bach’s keyboard fugue repertory and exemplifies his baroque contrapuntal craft. I do not provide a reference interpretation here because I am not 100% certain of a specific recording to recommend for this particular fugue.

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  • Play — J.S Bach Prelude and Fugue No.15 in G major, BWV 884 (Yeontaek Oh) · Yeontaek Oh (the player loads on click)

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  • Play — The Well-Tempered Clavier, 2ième Livre: Fugue No. 15 en Sol Majeur, BWV 884 · Johann Sebastian Bach, Richard Egarr (the player loads on click)

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Sheet music

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MusicCoach difficulty
60/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 42–78/100
Confidence : 62% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 6 to 7

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
5
50/100 normalised · 8 obs.
Relative difficulty
74%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
65%
Era Baroque
32%
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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