I posted here earlier about my undying admiration for both the
pianist Glenn Gould and the music of J.S. Bach, what and how he played it on
this wonderful instrument - even a book was written about his own Steinway
piano and his "personal tuner".
Today I post here again about the free availability of the Well
Tempered Clavier (Wohltemperierte Klavier) composed by Bach and the magnificent
and educated interpretation done by Glenn Gould, whose playing was put inside
the Voyager sent to the depth of the universe in hope to be received by
extraterrestrial intelligence to be a representation of the human knowledge and
its development.
Musically,
the structural regularities of the Well-Tempered Clavier encompass an
extraordinarily wide range of styles, more so than most pieces in the
literature. The Preludes are formally free, although many individual numbers
exhibit typical Baroque melodic forms, often coupled to an extended free coda
(e.g. Book I preludes in C minor, D Major, and B-flat major).Each fugue is marked with the number of voices, from two to five. Most are three- and four-voiced fugues. The fugues employ a full range of contrapuntal devices (fugal exposition, thematic inversion, stretto, etc.), but are generally more compact than Bach's fugues for organ.
The best-known piece from either book is the first prelude of Book I, a simple progression of arpeggiated chords. The technical simplicity of this C Major prelude has made it one of the most commonly studied piano pieces for students completing their introductory training. This prelude also served as the basis for the Ave Maria of Charles Gounod.
Later significance and influence
Although
the Well-Tempered Clavier was not the first pantonal (using all keys)
composition, it was by far the most influential. The very nature of the piece
(as implied by its title page) established a tuning requirement for harmonies,
which were to become the basis for all Western music developed through the
early 20th century. The Well-Tempered Clavier does not include very
remote modulations, but instead demonstrates the ability of a single instrument
in tempered tuning to play in all 24 keys without having to be tuned to new
fundamentals. Beethoven, who made remote modulations central to his music, was
heavily influenced by the Well-Tempered Clavier, since performing it in
concerts in his youth was part of his star attraction and reputation. Further
reaching modulations to remote harmonic regions were mostly associated with
later Romantic and post-Romantic music, ultimately leading to the functional
extension in jazz harmony. The atonal system of the 20th century, although
still taking the 12-tone chromatic scale (that Bach used) as a foundation,
effectively did away with musical keys altogether.
In addition to
its use of all keys, the Well-Tempered Clavier was unusual in the very
wide range of techniques and modes of expression used by Bach in the fugues. No
other composer had produced such vividly characterized and compelling pieces in
the fugal form, which was often regarded as a theoretical exercise.
A very good site
is the one of dr. Phillip Goeth (2) that I put here below and that I invite you to
extensively read and explore, then - of course - Youtube has all the video-recordings
of my hero Glenn Gould (3) playing this monument of piano solo music that has given joys
and satisfaction to thousands of listeners for centuries already and is going
to continue to do so I think forever.
Once again I ask
for one or two $ donation for making this easily available in my blog.
