- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press; illustrated edition edition (29 Oct 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0300097077
- ISBN-13: 978-0300097078
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.7 x 3 cm
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- #36 in Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Classical Music > By History > Classical 1750-1820
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Product Description
Product Description
Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" (the 48 preludes and fugues) stands at the core of baroque keyboard music and has been a model and inspiration for performers and composers ever since it was written. This guide to the 96 pieces explains Bach's various purposes in compiling the music, describes the rich traditions on which he drew, and provides commentaries for each prelude and fugue. In his text, David Ledbetter addresses the focal points mentioned by Bach in his original 1722 title page. Drawing on Bach literature over the past 300 years, he explores German traditions of composition types and Bach's novel expansion of them; explains Bach's instruments and innovations in keyboard technique in the general context of early 18th-century developments; reviews instructive and theoretical literature relating to keyboard temperaments from 1680 to 1750; and discusses Bach's pedagogical intent when composing the "Well-Tempered Clavier". Ledbetter's commentaries on individual preludes and fugues should equip readers with the concepts necessary to make their own assessment and include information about the sources when details of notation, ornaments and fingerings have a bearing on performance.
About the Author
David Ledbetter is senior lecturer at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The unspecific nature of the word Clavier in early eighteenth-century Germany has left the question of Bach's preferred instrument for The Well-tempered Clavier open to much argumentation and assumptions based on personal prejudice. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
The unspecific nature of the word Clavier in early eighteenth-century Germany has left the question of Bach's preferred instrument for The Well-tempered Clavier open to much argumentation and assumptions based on personal prejudice. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Amazon.com:
3 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
For the Bach-Lover
8 Aug 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Purchased this as a gift for a Bachophile friend, who reports that is the best work on the subject of "the 48" and vastly informative and interesting. This is obviously a book for those who have some knowledge of musical theory, and know and play this work, to add to their delectation. Bach rules!
5 of 11 people found the following review helpful
a lot of facts, but a few gaps
13 May 2007
The first half of the book is related only marginally to the purported topic of the book. Here the author discusses Baroque keyboard instruments, Baroque tuning systems, Baroque musical forms, and Bach's pedagogical technique, with only occasional allusion to the Well-Tempered Clavier.
The second half of the book is more in line with what I expected. This is where the author analyzes each movement one by one. However, he does not hit every section of every fugue. I was disappointed with the discussion of the f minor and A major fugues in Book I and the G major and g minor fugues in Book II.
Moreover, the author uses several terms which he does not define. I don't understand the terms rhetoric, verset, galant, stile antico, empfindsam, monochord, Gedackt, and Pythagorean third, so I guess I'm not good enough to join the author's club.
The second half of the book is more in line with what I expected. This is where the author analyzes each movement one by one. However, he does not hit every section of every fugue. I was disappointed with the discussion of the f minor and A major fugues in Book I and the G major and g minor fugues in Book II.
Moreover, the author uses several terms which he does not define. I don't understand the terms rhetoric, verset, galant, stile antico, empfindsam, monochord, Gedackt, and Pythagorean third, so I guess I'm not good enough to join the author's club.
10 of 29 people found the following review helpful
a lot of facts, but a few gaps
13 May 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The first half of the book is related only marginally to the purported topic of the book. Here the author discusses Baroque keyboard instruments, Baroque tuning systems, Baroque musical forms, and Bach's pedagogical technique, with only occasional allusion to the Well-Tempered Clavier.
The second half of the book is more in line with what I expected. This is where the author analyzes each movement one by one. However, he does not hit every section of every fugue. I was disappointed with the discussion of the f minor and A major fugues in Book I and the G major and g minor fugues in Book II.
Moreover, the author uses several terms which he does not define. I don't understand the terms rhetoric, verset, galant, stile antico, empfindsam, monochord, Gedackt, and Pythagorean third, so I guess I'm not good enough to join the author's club.
The second half of the book is more in line with what I expected. This is where the author analyzes each movement one by one. However, he does not hit every section of every fugue. I was disappointed with the discussion of the f minor and A major fugues in Book I and the G major and g minor fugues in Book II.
Moreover, the author uses several terms which he does not define. I don't understand the terms rhetoric, verset, galant, stile antico, empfindsam, monochord, Gedackt, and Pythagorean third, so I guess I'm not good enough to join the author's club.
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