Prelude & Fugue No. 1 in C Major

The Prelude No. 1 in C Major has become one of the most famous keyboard works ever written—perhaps because of its apparent simplicity, or simply because it feels so good under the fingers. Both features are explained when we learn that (in its original form) it was one of a series of pieces Bach wrote to teach his 11-year-old son, Wilhelm Friedemann. It consists of a very simple series of chords, whose notes are not played together, like a hymn, but are opened up by rippling them upwards with the right hand. The challenge to players is to achieve a smooth and even flow. The following Fugue is much trickier: the performers have to play four versions of the theme, all slightly out of sync with each other. In the 1850s, the French composer Gounod added a sentimental vocal line above the undulating Prelude to create his Ave Maria, which became famous in its own right. 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.