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38-454: The Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach . In the composer's time clavier referred to a variety of keyboard instruments, namely the harpsichord , the clavichord and the organ (which operates using air instead of strings), but not excluding the regal and the then newly-invented fortepiano . The modern German spelling for

76-452: A "circulating temperament" or a " well temperament "). One of the opposing systems in Bach's day was meantone temperament in which keys with many accidentals sound out of tune on keyboards limited to 12 pitches per octave. Bach would have been familiar with different tuning systems, and in particular as an organist would have played instruments tuned to a meantone system. During much of

114-551: A cycle of 12 organ preludes in successive keys. J.C.F. Fischer 's Ariadne musica neo-organoedum (published in 1702 and reissued 1715) is a set of 20 prelude and fugue pairs in ten major and nine minor keys, and the Phrygian mode , plus five chorale -based ricercars . Bach knew the collection and borrowed some of the themes from Fischer for the Well-Tempered Clavier . Other contemporary works include

152-417: A rather vague tuning method which was close to, but still not equal temperament: He wrote that it had only "most of" the fifths tempered, without saying which ones nor by how much. Since 1950 there have been many other proposals and many performances of the work in different and unequal tunings, some derived from historical sources, some by modern authors. Whatever their provenances, these schemes all promote

190-484: A second book of the same kind (24 pairs of preludes and fugues), which became known as The Well-Tempered Clavier , Part Two (in German: Zweyter Theil , modern spelling: Zweiter Teil ). Modern editions usually refer to both parts as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (WTC 1) and The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2 (WTC 2), respectively. The collection is generally regarded as one of

228-417: A single performance. Accounts of Bach's own tuning practice are few and inexact. The three most cited sources are Forkel , Bach's first biographer; Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg , who received information from Bach's sons and pupils; and Johann Kirnberger , one of those pupils. Despite the presumption of equal temperament, research has continued into various unequal systems contemporary with Bach's career; there

266-409: A too bit cryptic for Bach's spirit, but seems to the hopeful to represent the purpose for which the masterpiece was written, and at the same time, a clue to its decipherment. In perspective, this is not surprising, since the document with the doodle is most probably the working copy Johann Sebastian Bach used in classes with his students. Each Prelude is followed by a Fugue in the same key. In each book

304-427: A tuning method. Bach may have tuned differently per occasion, or per composition, throughout his career. Swich's proposal is based on the equal timing of the beats between the fifth F–C and the third F–A ( c.  3 beats per second) and between the fifth C–G and the third C–E ( c.  2 beats per second). Such a system is reminiscent of Kellner 's 1977 temperament and even more closely to

342-411: Is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach . It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder . The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV , was published in 1998. The catalogue groups compositions by genre. Even within a genre, compositions are not necessarily collated chronologically. For example, BWV 992

380-551: Is debate whether Bach might have meant a range of similar temperaments, perhaps altered slightly in practice from piece to piece, or possibly some single, specific, "well-tempered" solution for all purposes. Modern scholars suggest some form of unequal well temperament instead of equal temperament. Forkel reports that Bach tuned his own harpsichords and clavichords and found other people's tunings unsatisfactory, and also that Bach's personal tuning system allowed him to play in all keys, and to modulate into distant keys almost without

418-490: Is unequal, and the keys do not all sound the same. Compared to Werckmeister III, the other 24 key-circulating temperaments, Kirnberger's version of Bach's tuning is much more differentiated, with its 8 different kinds of major thirds (instead of Werckmeister's 4). The manuscript Bach P415 in the Berlin State Library is the only known copy of the W.T.C. that shows the doodle. It would be

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456-532: The BWV Anh. : Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer Fischer seems to have been of Bohemian origin, possibly born at Schönfeld , but details about his life are sketchy. Fischer was baptized and spent his youth in Schlackenwerth, north-west Bohemia. The first record of his existence is found in the mid-1690s: by 1695 he was Kapellmeister to Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden , and he may have remained with

494-404: The lute and the theorbo , resulting in several collections of pieces in all keys (although the music was not yet tonal in the modern sense of the word): One of the earliest keyboard composers to realize a collection of organ pieces in successive keys was Daniel Croner (1656–1740), who compiled one such cycle of preludes in 1682. His contemporary Johann Heinrich Kittel (1652–1682) also composed

532-622: The "London Original" (LO) manuscript, dated between 1739 and 1742, with scribes including Bach, his wife Anna Magdalena and his oldest son Wilhelm Friedeman, which is the basis for Version A of WTC 2 , and for Version B, that is the version published by the 19th-century Bach-Gesellschaft , a 1744 copy primarily written by Johann Christoph Altnickol (Bach's son-in-law), with some corrections by Bach, and later also by Altnickol and others. Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis ( BWV ; lit.   ' Bach works catalogue ' ; German: [ˈbax ˈvɛrkə fɛrˈtsaeçnɪs] )

570-469: The 20th century it was presumed, possibly mistakenly, that Bach intended equal temperament ; after Bach's death it became popular as the standard keyboard tuning, and had been described by theorists and musicians for at least a century before Bach's birth. Evidence for this belief is found in the fact that in W.T.C. Book 1 , Bach paired the E ♭ minor prelude (6 flats) with its enharmonic key of D ♯ minor (6 sharps) for

608-432: The advent of modern tonality in the late 17th century, numerous composers produced collections of pieces in all seven modes : Johann Pachelbel 's magnificat fugues (composed 1695–1706), Georg Muffat 's Apparatus Musico-organisticus of 1690 and Johann Speth 's Ars magna of 1693 for example. Furthermore, some two hundred years before Bach's time, equal temperament was realized on plucked string instruments, such as

646-546: The catalogue, based on the 1990 second edition. This edition, known as BWV , contained a few further updates and collation rearrangements. New additions ( Nachträge ) to BWV /BWV included: Numbers above BWV 1126 were added in the 21st century. A revised version (3rd edition in total) of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis was originally announced by the Bach Archive for publication in 2020, however it

684-448: The collection is Das wohltemperierte Klavier (WTK; German pronunciation: [das ˌvoːlˌtɛmpəˈʁiːɐ̯tə klaˈviːɐ̯] ). Bach gave the title Das Wohltemperirte Clavier to a book of preludes and fugues in all 24 keys, major and minor, dated 1722, composed "for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study". Some 20 years later, Bach compiled

722-571: The court until his death in Rastatt . Much of Fischer's music shows the influence of the French Baroque style, exemplified by Jean Baptiste Lully , and he was responsible for bringing the French influence to German music. Fischer's harpsichord suites updated the standard Froberger model ( Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gigue ); he was also one of the first composers to apply

760-405: The early 1720s, with Bach's autograph dated 1722. Apart from the early versions of several preludes included in W. F. Bach's Klavierbüchlein (1720) there is an almost complete collection of "Prelude and Fughetta" versions predating the 1722 autograph, known from a later copy by an unidentified scribe. The title page of the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier reads: An early version of

798-526: The editor of that catalogue, grouped the compositions by genre, largely following the 19th-century Bach Gesellschaft (BG) edition for the collation (e.g., BG cantata number = BWV number of the cantata): The Anhang of the BWV listed works that were not suitable for the main catalogue, in three sections: Within each section of the Anhang the works are sorted by genre, following the same sequence of genres as

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836-473: The existence of subtly different musical characters in different keys, due to the sizes of their intervals. However, they disagree as to which key receives which character: More recently there has been a series of proposals of temperaments derived from the handwritten doodle of loops on the title page of Bach's personal 1722 manuscript. Nevertheless, some musicologists say there is insufficient proof that Bach's looped drawing signifies anything reliable about

874-403: The first Prelude and Fugue is in C major , followed by a Prelude and Fugue in its parallel minor key ( C minor ). Then all keys, each major key followed by its parallel minor key, are followed through, each time moving up a half tone: C → C ♯ → D → E ♭ → E → F → F ♯ → ... ending with ... → B ♭ → B. The first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier was composed in

912-607: The first decade of the 21st century. Provenance of standard texts and tunes, such as Lutheran hymns and their chorale melodies , Latin liturgical texts (e.g. Magnificat ) and common tunes (e.g. Folia ), are not usually indicated in this column. For an overview of such resources used by Bach, see individual composition articles, and overviews in, e.g., Chorale cantata (Bach)#Bach's chorale cantatas , List of chorale harmonisations by Johann Sebastian Bach#Chorale harmonisations in various collections and List of organ compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach#Chorale Preludes . Appearing in

950-400: The following fugue. This pairs the most tonally remote enharmonic keys – at the point opposite C major on the circle of fifths , where the flat arm and sharp arm cross each other. Any unbroken performance of the pair would have required both of these enharmonic keys to sound identically tuned, implying equal temperament for this pair, as musicologists expect the entire piece to be played as

988-529: The keys, for which a manuscript dated 1689 was found in the library of the Brussels Conservatoire . It was later shown that this was the work of a composer who was not even born in 1689: Bernhard Christian Weber (1 December 1712 – 5 February 1758). In fact, it was written in 1745–1750 in imitation of Bach's prior example. Bach's title suggests that he had written for a 12 note tuning system, in which all keys sounded in tune (called

1026-620: The listeners noticing. In the course of a heated debate, Marpurg and Kirnberger appear to agree that Bach required all the major thirds to be sharper than pure – which is not very informative, since it is essentially a prerequisite for any temperament to sound tolerable in all keys. Johann Georg Neidhardt, writing in 1724–1732, described a range of unequal and near-equal temperaments (as well as equal temperament itself), which can be successfully used to perform some of Bach's music, and were later praised by some of Bach's pupils and associates. J.S. Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach himself published

1064-401: The main catalogue. Schmieder published the BWV's second edition in 1990, with some modifications regarding authenticity discriminations, and more works added to the main catalogue and the Anhang . Several compositions were repositioned in the over-all structure of chapters organised by genre and Anhang sections. In 1998 Alfred Dürr and Yoshitake Kobayashi published a small edition of

1102-492: The most important works in the history of classical music. Each set contains 24 pairs of prelude and fugue. The first pair is in C major , the second in C minor , the third in C ♯ major , the fourth in C ♯ minor , and so on. The rising chromatic pattern continues until every key has been represented, finishing with a B minor fugue. The first set was compiled in 1722 during Bach's appointment in Köthen , and

1140-1454: The prelude, BWV 846a , is found in Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (No. 14: "Praeludium 1"). The prelude is a seemingly simple progression of arpeggiated chords, one of the connotations of 'préluder' as the French lutenists used it: to test the tuning. Bach used both G ♯ and A ♭ into the harmonic meandering. Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 847 . Prelude also in WFB Klavierbüchlein , No. 15: Praeludium 2. Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp major, BWV 848 . Prelude also in WFB Klavierbüchlein , No. 21: Praeludium [8]. Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV 849 . Prelude also in WFB Klavierbüchlein , No. 22: Praeludium [9]. Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 850  [ de ; commons ] . Prelude also in WFB Klavierbüchlein , No. 17: Praeludium 4. Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BWV 851  [ commons ] . Prelude also in WFB Klavierbüchlein , No. 16: Praeludium 3. Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 852 . Prelude in E-flat minor and Fugue in D-sharp minor, BWV 853  [ commons ] . Prelude also in WFB Klavierbüchlein , No. 23: Praeludium [10]. The fugue

1178-475: The required key. In Bach's own time just one similar collection was published, by Johann Christian Schickhardt (1681–1762), whose Op. 30 L'alphabet de la musique (circa 1735) contained 24 sonatas in all keys for flute or violin and basso continuo , and included a transposition scheme for alto recorder . Although the Well-Tempered Clavier was the first collection of fully worked keyboard pieces in all 24 keys , similar ideas had occurred earlier. Before

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1216-536: The second followed 20 years later in 1742 while he was in Leipzig . Bach recycled some of the preludes and fugues from earlier sources: the 1720 Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach , for instance, contains versions of eleven of the preludes of the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier . The C ♯ major prelude and fugue in book one was originally in C major – Bach added a key signature of seven sharps and adjusted some accidentals to convert it to

1254-657: The temperament used for the Organ of St. Ludgeri in Norden , built in 1688 by Arp Schnitger , and the temperament later described by Carlo Gervasoni (1800). A system like Swich's, with all its major thirds more or less sharp, is confirmed by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg's description of the way Bach's famous student J.P. Kirnberger was taught to tune in his lessons with Bach: Kirnberger's tuning allows all 24 keys to be played through without changing tuning nor unpleasant intervals, but with varying degrees of difference. The temperament

1292-403: The treatise Exemplarische Organisten-Probe (1719) by Johann Mattheson (1681–1764), which included 48 figured bass exercises in all keys, Partien auf das Clavier (1718) by Christoph Graupner (1683–1760) with eight suites in successive keys, and Friedrich Suppig 's Fantasia from Labyrinthus Musicus (1722), a long and formulaic sectional composition ranging through all 24 keys which

1330-433: Was composed many years before BWV 1 . BWV numbers were assigned to 1,126 compositions in the 20th century, and more have been added to the catalogue in the 21st century. The Anhang (Anh.; Annex) of the BWV lists over 200 lost, doubtful and spurious compositions. The first edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis was published in 1950. It allocated a unique number to every known composition by Bach. Wolfgang Schmieder ,

1368-466: Was delayed and only finally published in 2022. The numbers assigned to compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and by others in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis are widely used for the unique identification of these compositions. Exceptionally BWV numbers are also indicated as Schmieder (S) numbers (e.g. S. 225 = BWV 225 ). BWV numbers 1 to 1126 appear in the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis . BWV numbers above 1126 were assigned from

1406-452: Was intended for an enharmonic keyboard with both 31 notes per octave and pure major thirds . Finally, a lost collection by Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706), Fugen und Praeambuln über die gewöhnlichsten Tonos figuratos (announced 1704), may have included prelude-fugue pairs in all keys or modes. It was long believed that Bach had taken the title The Well-Tempered Clavier from a similarly named set of 24  Preludes and Fugues in all

1444-1810: Was transposed from D minor to D ♯ minor. Prelude and Fugue in E major, BWV 854  [ commons ] . Prelude also in WFB Klavierbüchlein , No. 19: Praeludium 6. Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 855 . Early version BWV 855a of the Prelude in Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (No. 18: "Praeludium 5"). Prelude and Fugue in F major, BWV 856  [ commons ] . Prelude also in WFB Klavierbüchlein , No. 20: Praeludium 7. Prelude and Fugue in F minor, BWV 857  [ commons ] . Prelude also in WFB Klavierbüchlein , No. 24: Praeludium [11]. Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp major, BWV 858  [ commons ] . Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp minor, BWV 859  [ commons ] . Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 860  [ commons ] . Prelude and Fugue in G minor, BWV 861 . Prelude and Fugue in A-flat major, BWV 862  [ commons ] . Prelude and Fugue in G-sharp minor, BWV 863  [ commons ] . Prelude and Fugue in A major, BWV 864  [ commons ] . Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 865  [ commons ] . Prelude and Fugue in B-flat major, BWV 866 . Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor, BWV 867 . Prelude and Fugue in B major, BWV 868  [ commons ] . Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 869  [ commons ] . The two major primary sources for this collection of Preludes and Fugues are

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