Here is an exposition of the Shostakovich Op. 87 Prelude and Fugue in C Major as provided by one of my listeners, an artist who goes by the name Yanick on MySpace:

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"Being intimate with this kind of music, I thought I'd write a little walkthrough which may help those who aren't familiar with Op. 87 to enjoy and sink deeper in the first Prelude and Fugue.

"The diptych is working as a contrast. The prelude is a harmonic labyrinth consisting of five note chords on a sarabande rhythm. On the contrary the fugue (in C Major) has NO harmonic accident whatsoever (no sharps or flats anywhere)!!! This is a unique aspect of this fugue, since the very point of most fugues is to move around from one tonality to another. Instead, Shostakovich achieves to sustain this fugue with tonal modes. (You got to love Shostakovich!)

"The contrast between this prelude and fugue exists primarily at the harmonic level.
As Jonathan avoided the temptation of swinging the sarabande doted rhythm to enforce a rhythmic difference with the fugue, he unified the two different worlds with a rhythmic calm and in doing so, presented the harmonic contrast in such a way as to be savored at first sight.

"You may also notice the three anacroses (little notes before an actual note) in the middle voice near the end of the fugue (Bars 80 and 82, a C and 85, an F) departing from the rhythmic stability and announcing the coda (the end)."

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Might I add that the three anacroses are not actually in the music score, they actually came about by a misread on my part. They were supposed to be grace notes proceding parts of the fugal subject meant to assist with wide jumps with the right hand. The poor quality of the score made it look like the grace notes were one note higher. But I guess Yanick found a musical excuse for my mistake.

Thanks Yanick for your insight!