Prelude & Fugue No. 3 in C-Sharp Major

Among Bach’s most cheerful contributions to the Well-Tempered Clavier, this Prelude and Fugue is characterised throughout by vivacious, fast-paced speeds and up- and downward skipping ideas. The first half of the Prelude is a game of about-turn, in which the left and right hand swap their distinctive themes back and forth so regularly that we are surprised when Bach suddenly interrupts the routine. The second half of the movement is looser, with repeated-note patterns for the right hand which Bach borrowed from the violin. Finally, Bach ripples up and down the keyboard a few times before ending firmly with a few crisp chords. The Fugue in C-Sharp Major may only have a three-part texture, but it sounds remarkably full and busy. Little bits of the chirpy theme keep popping up wittily, but beneath the surface the player is having to concentrate hard—playing in C-Sharp Major is particularly tricky. About J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book I If we had to choose the most influential of Bach’s works in the centuries since his death, the biggest votes would probably go to the St Matthew Passion and The Well-Tempered Clavier. The epithet “well-tempered” refers to “equal temperament”—a new method of tuning keyboard instruments, which made a wide range of keys available. Bach showed off these possibilities in two books of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, which is why the collection is sometimes known as the “48”. Partly drawing on earlier works, Bach completed Book 1 around 1722, and Book 2 20 years later, constantly revising both. He intended the pieces to be useful to players of all types of keyboard instrument.