The Well Tempered Clavier
The forty-eight preludes and fugues of Bach, together known as The Well Tempered Clavier, consist of two sets of pieces, both sets consisting of twenty-four pieces each, made up of one piece in each of the twelve major and twelve minor keys. They were designed as something of a public manifesto for the system of tuning keyboard instruments known as Equal Temperament
. (Hence Well Tempered
. The word Clavier
means any keyboard instrument.) Each of the ‘48’ consists of a prelude – a preliminary acting as a suitable preparation of the listener’s ear and mind – followed in the same key by the fugue. A fugue (literal translation: flight) consists of two or more melodic strands, one following the other in the subject and then introducing variations and modulations on the original theme. In music, at least, the participants usually survive the experience, although with some of Bach’s choral works it can be a close run thing.