Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I, Praeludium I
Description
The opening piece of Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier. The collection sets a prelude and fugue in all twenty-four keys, assembled to demonstrate the possibilities of a tuning — not yet standard at the time — in which every key is playable. Its first number has become the most famous music in the set.
In C major and common time, the entire piece consists of one broken-chord figure repeated. There is no melody and no counterpoint; only the harmony changes, and that succession of chords builds tension quietly but surely towards resolution. It runs about two and a half minutes and contains some 550 notes. In the nineteenth century Gounod laid a melody over it and made it famous again as an "Ave Maria."
Its intermediate rating is about uniformity rather than finger difficulty. The same figure runs dozens of times, so the least unevenness is exposed. Every note the same length, at the same volume — and then a decision about how to breathe where the harmony turns. The simpler the piece, the more directly the player's ear is heard in it.
Bach's collection of preludes and fugues for keyboard, covering all 24 keys and regarded as the summit of contrapuntal writing.
Browse all songs in The Well-Tempered Clavier →Sheet Music
Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
What this piece teaches
Prelude No. 1 in C major from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier. One broken-chord shape runs from start to finish, and only the harmony moves. It sits in the Sonatina Album too - a standard way into intermediate playing.
How to practise it
- Play each bar's broken chord as a block chord first. Once you know the harmonic route, memorising is easier.
- With one shape repeating, the least unevenness shows. At 0.5x, make every note the same length and weight.
- Where the harmony moves from tension towards resolution, a slight change of volume lets the piece breathe.
Practice guides using this piece
Reading the difficulty level and score, and choosing your next piece
How the beginner / intermediate / advanced levels and the 1-10 difficulty score are worked out, and how to use them to choose what to play next.
About the Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was the towering figure of German Baroque music, serving for decades as Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Renowned for his mastery of counterpoint, he laid the foundations of keyboard music with works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Inventions. This site includes minuets and polonaises from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, the Inventions and Sinfonias, and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier. The Notebook pieces are catalogued with BWV Anh. (appendix) numbers, but many are by other composers - Petzold's minuets among them - or by no one known, and most of their song pages give the current view of who wrote them.
View all works by Bach →