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Baroque Pianism: Perspectives On Playing Baroque Keyboard Music On The Piano, With Emphasis On Bach’S Fugues In The Well-Tempered Clavier, Chih-Tung Cheng

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In a famous quote, Schumann described the fugues in Bach's Well-tempered Clavier as pianists’ “daily bread.” This dissertation explains how these fugues can be pianists’ practical daily bread by encouraging them to explore a virtuosity of subtlety. I assert that the compositional complexity in these fugues increases pianistic challenges in both interpretive and technical aspects; these challenges can lead pianists to explore a multi-faced pianistic awareness in a way that they may not encounter when performing other styles of music.