The Well-Tempered Clavier : 48 preludes and fugues for the piano, Book 2

Prelude

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750
Prelude
Form
Score
First page of The Well-Tempered Clavier : 48 preludes and fugues for the piano, Book 2

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Themes & character
Companion to Book 1·All 24 keys again·Later, freer style·Compiled over two decades

At a glance

Form
Prelude

About the piece

The second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, compiled around 1742, some twenty years after the first, again works through all twenty four major and minor keys in paired preludes and fugues. Bach assembled it from pieces written across a much longer span of time than the first book. Its fugues tend to be more varied in style and texture than those of Book 1, reflecting how far Bach's contrapuntal writing had developed in the intervening decades. Together, the two books total forty eight preludes and fugues, a complete survey of tonal keyboard writing.

The composer

Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
1685–1750

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.

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