Präludium und Fuge a-moll "July Morning"

op.11 No.20

The time has come. I have already announced that I have something very special in mind for this piece. How do I best begin?
Well, a few weeks ago I woke up, and on my way to the kitchen to make some steaming coffee, I had a melody in my head that kept repeating itself, reminding me of my youth, when - cool as 17-year-olds are - I listened to a lot of hard rock, especially the group "Uriah Heep", which was founded towards the end of the 60s.
The third LP had the title "Look at Yourself" and to underline this, the cover ..... was a mirror and you had to look at yourself, whether you wanted to or not, and that was truly not a pretty sight when you got up in the morning.
One song on the disc was July Morning, and had the length of 10 1/2 minutes. Uriah Heep were known for playing very long pieces, which were tellingly called "large scale compositions". The rock band's longest piece was "Salisbury" on the 2nd LP, which was both the title of the LP and the name of the longest track, which delighted the listener for almost 20 minutes. And I do mean "delight", because the band played together with the London Symphonic Orchestra. But I digress ......

Now for July morning ....
The song was written by Kenneth William David Hensley (Ken Hensley for short) with the help of lead singer David Byron.
Ken Hensley could be called the intellectual head of the band, whose ingenious ideas he set to music in a way that bridged the gap from so-called "classical music" to hard rock. For me, this man has been the Bach of the 70s, and perhaps the classical composition of the songs has also become the key, the way to the serious music.