The Well-Tempered Clavier: A Collection of Small Masterpieces
We’ve already talked about J.S. Bach’s life and times, and his well-known piano work, the “Inventions and Sinfonias.” Now we’ll take a look at another of Bach’s masterpieces for piano pedagogy: “The Well-Tempered Clavier.”
“The Well-Tempered Clavier” is another collection of short works for keyboard instruments by Bach. Although the work was not printed until over 50 years after his death, manuscript copies were distributed throughout Europe by Bach’s students, and their students in turn. Beethoven and Mozart were among later pianists who received copies. Thus “The Well-Tempered Clavier” was widely influential and remains so right up to the present.
Bach wrote “The Well-Tempered Clavier” as an educational work for his students. The work contains a paired Prelude and Fugue in each of the 12 major and minor keys, each one a minor masterpiece. Bach seems to have been inspired to take advantage the “Well Temperament” system of piano tuning that was developed during his day. A keyboard instrument tuned according to Well Temperament could be played in any key without needing to be retuned. This represented an advance from the previous popular tuning method, Meantone Tuning, in which some keys were unplayable even though others were in tune.
Did Bach sit down and bang out a series of etudes moving up the chromatic scale, all in one short period? Well, no. As a gifted composer, performer, and teacher, Bach was not satisfied until each piece was a small gem, rich with symbolism and artistry.
In fact, one could argue that Bach did this twice. The “Well-Tempered Clavier” that we use in piano pedagogy today is actually a combination of two works which Bach wrote twenty years apart. The first set of 24 pieces is dated 1722 and is specifically dedicated to the “profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” In 1742, Bach produced a similar collection of short pieces, two in each key, this time labeled simply, “Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues.” Nowadays, we refer to the first set as WTC-I and the second set as WTC-II, and together they make up the whole of “The Well-Tempered Clavier.”
The short works contained in “The Well-Tempered Clavier” embrace diverse forms and styles, leaving out no popular style of Bach’s day. Moreover, they also illustrate the religious and numerological symbolism of which Bach was so fond. This even applies to the preludes, in contrast to the usual practice of the era. In the Baroque era, preludes, as the name implies, were typically short and light, meant only to introduce the key in which the following fugue would demonstrate the composer’s, and the performer’s, virtuosity. In “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” by contrast, even the preludes are works of art in their own right.
In Bach’s own teaching, he appears to have reserved “The Well-Tempered Clavier” for later study. He usually had students begin with his “Inventions and Sinfonias,” and only after the student had mastered those would Bach provide “The Well-Tempered Clavier.” To gain mastery over the keyboard even today, the pianist must include “The Well-Tempered Clavier” in his or her repertoire.
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