Customer Reviews

Bach's Well-tempered Clavier: The 48 Preludes and Fugues

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4 star:		(2)
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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!

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 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.