Bach Preludes

In seventh grade, I started lessons with Hurshelene Journey-McCarty at Frank Phillips Junior College in Borger, Texas. One of my first assignments was Bach’s Little Prelude in F major. My Dad termed it “deedle-daddle-deedle-daddle” music, but I wasn’t sure what he meant. In the 1950s he liked the music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. In the 1700s Bach composed for a “well-tempered clavier,” an instrument that had no sustaining pedal. To keep the harmonies flowing, he broke them into rapid-fire sixteenth or thirty-second-note patterns, which must have sounded like “deedle-daddle-deedle-daddle” to my Dad. In our small house, it probably drove him crazy to hear me memorizing that piece.

I still play that F major prelude to warm up my fingers, but have advanced to the more elaborate “adult” Preludes of the Well-Tempered Clavier. In 1722 Bach compiled a set of twenty-four pairs of prelude and fugue. The first pair is in C major, the second in C minor, the third in C♯major, the fourth in C♯ minor, and so on. The rising chromatic pattern continues until every key has been represented, finishing with a B minor. The first 24 sets are known as Volume 1. They were so popular that in 1742, he compiled another set, Volume 2.  The two volumes are generally regarded as being among the most important works in the history of classical music.^[2] Subsequent composers–Chopin,  Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Hindemith, Shostakovich–have composed sets of 24 Preludes, but few have tried fugues and no composer has matched Bach’s 48.

Each summer I resolve to memorize a new Bach Prelude. Five years ago it was the E Major; the next year, the B-flat major. I can still play those by memory, but only if I review them regularly. Last July I wrote about my struggles with Prelude XXII in B-flat minor. This summer I have almost mastered Prelude XVII in A-flat major. It’s only 44 measures long, but it is really tricky. Each hand copies the other’s patterns with slight variations. Rarely do both hands play in the same direction at the same time; when they do, it’s easy, but only for a few beats. Let me play it for you sometime.

March 27, 2020:  “Sometime” is now! During the coronavirus outbreak, I found great consolation in reviewing my Bach Preludes. Here’s my own recording of the A-flat Major:

Here is an interesting video created around the A-flat major prelude, performed by Kimiko Ishizaka, with an animated graphical score.

Contrast that sound with the sound my father preferred and marvel that we managed to get along happily and love each other dearly. Dad had good taste. Wills was inducted into the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category along with the Texas Playboys in 1999, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.