Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 05/10/2005, uploaded on 06/23/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Prelude and Fugue in F minor, from Well-Tempered Clavier  Book I      Johann Sebastian Bach

The forty-eight preludes and fugues that make up the two books of the Well-Tempered Clavier were compiled at two different times-the first book in 1722 while Bach was in Köthen and in 1742 in Leipzig. In each book, the first prelude and fugue set is in C major, followed by the next in C minor and so they ascend chromatically in major-minor pairs. The preludes for the most part exhibit simple binary or ternary forms;  a few (Nos. 9 and 12 in Book II) use the old Baroque sonata form well-known in the works of Scarlatti. Quite exceptionally, the Prelude in D of Book II nearly approaches the requirements of the modern sonata form. The fugues range from two to five voices, with three and four being the preferable choices, and employ a wide range of contrapuntal techniques.

The title page of Bach's autograph fair copy (in the possession of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz) states that the Well-Tempered Clavier is a set of preludes and fugues "for the Use and Profit of the Musical Youth Desirous of Learning." Although not published during his lifetime, Bach made use of the Well-Tempered Clavier with his own students, usually lending his manuscript to them and letting them make their own personal copy. These copies were slowly spread across Europe and several later influential composers, most notably Mozart and Beethoven, obtained their own manuscripts of the Well-Tempered Clavier. During the course of the nineteenth century, this remarkable set of preludes and fugue became a cornerstone in the piano literature, a position which it still holds today. As proof of its importance in the literature, the famous nineteenth century music critic, Hans von Bülow, called the the Well-Tempered Clavier the "Pianists' Old Testament."

Interesting is Bach's rather general statement on the title page: "for the Use and Profit of the Musical Youth Desirous of Learning." Bach was not specific concerning the subject of his instruction, so it can only be left to assume it is not one specific element, but music in all its aspects that he wished to teach. In the Well-Tempered Clavier, the music student has the most comprehensive and practical instructional manual to harmony and counterpoint, far surpassingly any textbook written on these subjects. From these two disciplines comes the foundation needed for a complete understanding of music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In assuming Bach's only intention was to teach keyboard technique, we fail to recognize the full potential of these forty-eight preludes and fugues.

The twelfth prelude of Book I is set in the mournful key of F minor. It begins with an opening arpeggio figure set against a pair of falling thirds in quarter notes. This arpeggio figure becomes the musical germ from which the rest of the prelude springs. In the final bars of the prelude, the falling thirds are extended over a dominant pedal and bring it to a close. The fugue begins with a chromatic subject and when combined with the answer, all twelve tones of the chromatic scale are present. It is interesting that the fugue concluding the first half of Book I requires the subject and answer to present all twelve chromatic pitches, while the final fugue of Book I, in B minor, presents all twelve in the subject alone. This is obviously too convenient to be coincidental. Throughout the fugue, the subject appears with its accompanying countersubjects with the sole exception of an entry of only the subject in E flat major in measure forty. The last appearance of the subject appears in the bass creating a sense of inescapable gravity leading into the final measures, before evaporating into trills on the fifth and third of the dominant chord and resolving into a major tonic chord.      Joseph DuBose