For example, his A minor prelude is a figuration prelude-a prelude in which the same hand position is used throughout the piece. In addition to more direct quotation, Shostakovich also at points imitates the various types of preludes found in the Bach cycle (and in other, similar, Baroque compositions). Likewise, the composers' second fugues (A minor for Shostakovich, C minor for Bach) utilize very similar opening rhythms for their fugue subjects (two 16th notes followed by 3 eighth notes, twice in a row). For example, Shostakovich begins his C major prelude, the first piece in the cycle, with exactly the same notes that Bach uses in his own C major prelude, BWV 846, which likewise begins The Well-Tempered Clavier. References to and quotations from Bach's cycle appear throughout the work. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, an earlier set of 48 preludes and fugues, are widely held to be the direct inspiration for Shostakovich's cycle, largely based on the work's composition history. Relationship to Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier 28, and Shostakovich's own earlier 24 Preludes, Op. 1 and 2), then to one sharp (G major, E minor), two sharps (D major, B minor), and so on, ending with D minor (1 flat). The pieces proceed in relative major/minor pairs around the circle of fifths: first C major and A minor (prelude and fugue nos. 13 in F ♯ major is in five voices, while Fugue No. Each piece is in two parts- a prelude and a fugue-varying in pace, length and complexity (for example, Fugue No.
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