Making a setting of the prelude of the first Bach cello suite was easy. Making a quartet setting of the prelude for the third suite was not easy, but it was exciting, and the adventure and discovery propelled me forward and gave me energy. Making a quartet setting of the sixth suite was daunting and difficult, but it was ultimately rewarding.
Now I sit in the middle of the one-voice fugue of the fifth suite, and feel like I'm scaling the highest part of a mountain (using ropes). The deeply expressive prelude part of the prelude and fugue that begins the piece is finished (that would be the lower part of the mountain, filled with wild animals and lots of vines). I could only do a few measures of it at a sitting, but I sat often and long, and I took breaks.
I'm 60 measures into the Fugue (there are somewhere around 200 more, at least, to go). It's dangerous territory. I had a look at how Schumann accompanied it, and he safely reinforced the harmony during the eighth notes and avoided adding counterpoint. I'm not doing that.
Wish me luck.
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