“All the Keys Sounded Pure and Agreeable…” Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier
Richard Wigmore
The seeds of Bach’s most celebrated keyboard work— dubbed by conductor Hans von Bülow the “Old Testa ment,” to the “New Testament” of Beethoven’s sonatas— lie in the musical education of his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. Johann Sebastian was as systematic in his teaching methods as in his compositions. In January 1720, while Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen, he presented the nine-year-old Wilhelm Friedemann with a “little keyboard book” (Clavierbüchlein) into which he wrote pieces designed to hone technical skills and musical under standing. These include early versions of the Two- and Three-Part Inventions (or Sinfonias, as the latter were styled), some copied by Wilhelm Friedemann himself, and 11 of the first 12 preludes of what became Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier. By 1722 the 11 preludes, expanded and, in some cases, transposed into the more abstruse keys, had become 24 fully fledged preludes and fugues, arranged in chromatically ascending key sequence. The title page of Bach’s fair copy proclaims that the music’s purpose was both to instruct and delight: “The Well-Tempered Clavier, or Preludes and
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