The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846. Every bar is one chord, broken into the same pattern twice. The harmony does all the talking.
The story
In 1722 Bach gathered 24 preludes and fugues, one in every major and minor key. It was a demonstration that a keyboard tuned in a “well-tempered” way could play in all keys, and a course in composition for his students. This prelude opens the whole collection.
It is built from a single idea: each bar is one chord, spread out as a rising pattern and played twice. Bach turns that simple pattern into a journey away from C major and back.
In 1853 the French composer Charles Gounod improvised a melody over it. With the words of the Ave Maria added later, the result became one of the most famous songs in the world.
Three things to know
- Chopin practised the Well-Tempered Clavier to prepare for his concerts.
- There are no melody notes in the usual sense: the tune is hidden in how the chords move.
- Book II, another 24 preludes and fugues, followed about twenty years later.
How to play it
Each chord has its own colour. Listen for the bars that suddenly sound tense, then feel them resolve in the next bar.