Prelude & Fugue in D-minor, BWV 549a

Instrumentation:
This arrangement has been scored for clarinet quartet using flexible instrumentation for increased accessibility:

I. E-flat or B-flat Clarinet
II. B-flat Clarinet, Basset Horn, or Alto Clarinet
III. B-flat Clarinet, Basset Horn, Alto Clarinet, or Bass Clarinet
IV. Bass Clarinet or E-flat Contra-Alto Clarinet

Transposed Score (E-flat, B-flat, Alto, Bass)

Length: 5 minutes

Difficulty: Intermediate/Advanced

Notes:
J.S. Bach's Prelude and Fugue BWV 549a in D-minor is one of his earlier works, believed to have been transcribed later to C-minor (BWV 549). This arrangement has been scored for clarinet quartet using flexible instrumentation for increased accessibility. The score has been written for E-flat, B-flat, Alto, and Bass clarinet, however, any combination of the included parts is acceptable.

A B-flat clarinet part has been included for Part III to allow for one of the most common and accessible clarinet quartet settings of three B-flat clarinets and one bass clarinet, however, it required transposing a couple passages up an octave when it became too low, so using a basset horn, alto clarinet, or bass clarinet is preferable. The bass clarinets do not require the extended low range.

Richard originally arranged BWV 549 in C-minor for SATB saxophone quartet (AMA-006) and I adapted it for clarinets (AMA-007), then made the BWV 549a in D-minor version. The editing of this arrangement has been in consultation with the Barenreiter (1972) and Breitkopf & Hartel (2013) Urtext editions for organ.