How Did Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Work?
The most famous of Bach’s clavier works is the set of preludes and fugues called “The Well- Tempered Clavier.” The Well- Tempered Clavier was a series of compositions for keyboard in which he explored a tuning of the keyboard that was "well-tempered." The Well-Tempered Clavier was split into two parts and each part consists of twenty-four preludes and fugues, one prelude and one fugue in each of the twelve major and minor keys. Part 1 was completed in Cothen in 1722, part 2 was completed in Leipzig around 1740 but it was not until nearly half a century after Bach’s death that the English began to “catch up,” a process that roughly coincided with the appearance in 1801 of the first complete printed editions of The Well-Tempered Clavier on
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Other than exemplifying different types of keyboarding compositions of the baroque era and varying in subjects, texture, form and treatment, the Well- Tempered Clavier has contributed to modern tuning and temperament as well. The Well-Tempered Clavier collection was one of the first, if not the first to require tempered tuning. Well temperament is an unequal temperament, retaining the basic characteristics of the meantone system, while allowing the keys used as sharps also to serve as flats. If A' = 440 vibes per second, then A'' = 880, which is one octave higher. In nature, this mathematical ratio does not naturally exist. For example, if you cut one bamboo pipe in half, you do not get a perfect multiple of the original pitch. It may come out around 887 which will sound "out of tune" to our ear when the two A's are sounded simultaneously. To be in tune is an agreement in musical pitch and intonation and pitch is the quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it; the degree of highness or lowness of a tone. The keyboard instrument the "clavier" which pre dates the piano, needed tempered tuning in order to write in four or five octaves. The preludes …show more content…
Although the piece was completed in the 1700’s and released in the early 1800’s, the Well-Tempered clavier has contributed to modern temperament and tuning as well as helping piano and keyboarding students improve on their skills and reading of
Other than exemplifying different types of keyboarding compositions of the baroque era and varying in subjects, texture, form and treatment, the Well- Tempered Clavier has contributed to modern tuning and temperament as well. The Well-Tempered Clavier collection was one of the first, if not the first to require tempered tuning. Well temperament is an unequal temperament, retaining the basic characteristics of the meantone system, while allowing the keys used as sharps also to serve as flats. If A' = 440 vibes per second, then A'' = 880, which is one octave higher. In nature, this mathematical ratio does not naturally exist. For example, if you cut one bamboo pipe in half, you do not get a perfect multiple of the original pitch. It may come out around 887 which will sound "out of tune" to our ear when the two A's are sounded simultaneously. To be in tune is an agreement in musical pitch and intonation and pitch is the quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it; the degree of highness or lowness of a tone. The keyboard instrument the "clavier" which pre dates the piano, needed tempered tuning in order to write in four or five octaves. The preludes …show more content…
Although the piece was completed in the 1700’s and released in the early 1800’s, the Well-Tempered clavier has contributed to modern temperament and tuning as well as helping piano and keyboarding students improve on their skills and reading of