All 48 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys. Authoritative Bach-Gesellschaft edition. Explanation of ornaments in English, tempo indications, music corrections.

An exploration of musical harmony from its ancient fundamentals to its most complex modern progressions, addressing how and why it resonates emotionally and spiritually in the individual. W. A. Mathieu, an accomplished author and recording artist, presents a way of learning music that reconnects modern-day musicians with the source from which music was originally generated. As the author states, "The rules of music--including counterpoint and harmony--were not formed in our brains but in the resonance chambers of our bodies." His theory of music reconciles the ancient harmonic system of just intonation with the modern system of twelve-tone temperament. Saying that the way we think music is far from the way we do music, Mathieu explains why certain combinations of sounds are experienced by the listener as harmonious. His prose often resembles the rhythms and cadences of music itself, and his many musical examples allow readers to discover their own musical responses.

Edited by Baroque scholar Judith Schneider, with expert fingering suggestions by Stuttgart Professor Maria Sofianska, the long-awaited Volume II of Bach's essential masterpiece contains extensive research and insight into Baroque music. Painstakingly compared with the most important autograph and manuscript sources, this comprehensive edition includes thorough analysis of written and improvised ornamentation, a discussion of period keyboard instruments, insight into pedaling, touch, tempo and rhythm issues, as well as a discussion of preludes and fugues.

Charming, moving, uplifting. Why can't all love stories be like this? Tunku Varadarajan, The Wall Street Journal This is a charming and uplifting book. Piers Morgan Seventeen-year-old schoolboy Kim is an idle drifter at one of Britain's most extraordinary institutions, Eton College - crammed with over a thousand boys and not a girl in sight. His head is full of the Falklands War and a possible army career, until the day he hears his new piano teacher, the beautiful but pained India, playing Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Kim's life is destined never to be the same again. An intensely passionate affair develops and he wallows in the wild and unaccustomed thrill of first love. Twenty-five years on, Kim recalls that heady summer and how their fledgling relationship was so brutally snuffed out - finished off by his enemies, by the constraints of Eton, and by his own withering jealousy. "The Well-Tempered Clavier" is the bittersweet story of a life-changing love.

Piano Method

Bach's Well-tempered Clavier (or 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 invaluable 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 main focal points mentioned by Bach in his original 1722 title page. Drawing on Bach literature over the past three hundred 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 eighteenth-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 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.

This book sets forth the provocative theories of a musician who has been called the outstanding harpsichordist of this century. The late Ralph Kirkpatrick reveals here his approach to a deeper comprehension of music, showing how his methods are applied to the preludes and fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier of J.S. Bach. "This book is brilliant and important."--Clavier "All keyboardists performing classical repertoire can greatly benefit from Kirkpatrick's scholarship, dry wit, and stubborn dedication."--Keyboard "That Mr. Kirkpatrick's extraordinarily perceptive mind knew the subject matter thoroughly is beyond dispute. . . Valuable insights into the analysis, teaching and performance of all Western music, especially Bach's monumental Well-Tempered Clavier."--Arthur Lawrence, The American Organist "We are fortunate to have this book by Ralph Kirkpatrick. . . From it we gain insight into the musical mind of one of the outstanding performers of our century."--The Music Review "The real matter of the book is good old-fashioned musicianship."--Denis Arnold, London Review of Books