PRECURSORS
Although the
Well-Tempered Clavier was the first collection of fully worked keyboard pieces
in all 24 keys, similar ideas had occurred earlier. Before the advent of modern tonality in the late 17th century, numerous composers produced collections of pieces in all seven
modes:
Johann Pachelbel's magnificat fugues (composed 1695–1706),
Georg Muffat's
Apparatus Musico-organisticus of 1690 and
Johann Speth's
Ars magna of 1693 for example. Furthermore, some two hundred years before Bach's time,
equal temperament was realized on plucked string instruments, such as the
lute and the
theorbo, resulting in several collections of pieces in all keys (although the music was not yet tonal in the modern sense of the word):
- a cycle of 24 passamezzo–saltarello pairs (1567) by Giacomo Gorzanis (c.1520–c.1577)[5]
- 24 groups of dances, "clearly related to 12 major and 12 minor keys" (1584) byVincenzo Galilei (c.1528–1591)[6]
- 30 preludes for 12-course lute or theorbo by John Wilson (1595–1674)[7][8]
One of the earliest keyboard composers to realize a collection of organ pieces in successive keys was
Daniel Croner (1656–1740), who compiled one such cycle of preludes in 1682.
[9][10]His contemporary Johann Heinrich Kittel (1652–1682) also composed a cycle of 12 organ preludes in successive keys.
[11]
Ariadne musica neo-organoedum, by
J.C.F. Fischer (1656–1746) was published in 1702 and reissued 1715. It is a set of 20 prelude-fugue pairs in ten major and nine minor keys and the
Phrygian mode, plus five
chorale-based
ricercars. Bach knew the collection and borrowed some of the themes from Fischer for
Well-Tempered Clavier.
[12] Other contemporary works include the treatise
Exemplarische Organisten-Probe (1719) by
Johann Mattheson (1681–1764), which included 48
figured bass exercises in all keys,
[13] Partien auf das Clavier (1718) by
Christoph Graupner (1683–1760) with eight suites in successive keys,
[14] and
Friedrich Suppig's
Fantasiafrom
Labyrinthus Musicus (1722), a long and formulaic sectional composition ranging through all 24 keys which was intended for an
enharmonic keyboard with 31 notes per octave and pure
major thirds.
[13][15] Finally, a lost collection by
Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706),
Fugen und Praeambuln über die gewöhnlichsten Tonos figuratos (announced 1704), may have included prelude-fugue pairs in all keys or modes.
[16]
It was long believed that Bach had taken the title
The Well-Tempered Clavier from a similarly-named set of 24 Preludes and Fugues in all the keys, for which a manuscript dated 1689 was found in the library of the Brussels Conservatoire. It was later shown that this was the work of a composer who was not even born in 1689:
Bernhard Christian Weber (1 December 1712 – 5 February 1758). It was in fact written in 1745–50, and in imitation of Bach's example.
[17][18]
Bach's example inspired numerous composers of the 19th century, however, in his own time no similar collections were published, except one by
Johann Christian Schickhardt (1681–1762), whose Op. 30
L'alphabet de la musique, contained 24 sonatas for recorder/flute/violin, in all keys.
[19]
