Prelude in Ab Major (BWV 862 No. 1) for Oboe & Guitar

The Well-Tempered Clavier is two sets of preludes and fugues for keyboard. Each set consists of twenty four preludes and fugues in all of the major and minor keys in ascending order. They were published in two separate “books,“ Book I, which was composed in 1722, and Book II, composed in 1744. The title of the work refers to a then new system of tuning, called equal temperament, in which an octave was divided into twelve equal intervals. This method of tuning replaced an earlier one called meantone tuning, in which the key of C major and those near it were purely intonated, while keys with many sharps or flats would be out of tune. In the meantone system, each tone and semitone is subtly different, while the equal tempered system eschewed perfect intonation for an equal division of the octave, such that each tone and semitone was equal. Bach certainly recognized the value of such a system--it allowed for greater freedom of modulation and use of chromaticism--and his Well-Tempered Clavier served as an effective promotion of this new tuning method. It is a vivid demonstration of the flexibility and practicality of the equal or “well“ tempered keyboard. It is also an example of Bach’s compositional genius and good taste: as his first biographer Johann Forkel noted, despite its perfectly idiomatic music and attention to specific technical issues, Bach likely composed this work away from the keyboard while on a trip with his patron, Prince Leopold. Like many of Bach’s great pedagogical works, the Well-Tempered Clavier is a collection of pieces whose musical value is as great as their instructional value. Each piece tests different techniques and addresses different technical challenges; however, Bach is careful not to sacrifice musicality for pedagogy, so that fugal subjects are simple yet interesting, motives are tastefully developed, and melodic lines are supple and shapely. There is no paucity of purely musical ideas in this work. Book II, composed some twenty-two years after the first, is noticeably less pedagogical in its emphasis, and is obviously addressed to the accomplished player rather than the “Musical youth“ described on the title page of Book I. Book II also does not, in the printed score, make a point of equal temperament: by 1744, this new system was no longer new, and no longer required Bach’s advocacy. The brief prelude is based almost entirely on material Bach sets out in the first bar or two, a little fanfare figure announced in the right hand and echoed in the left. This provides the fodder for an ongoing conversation between the treble and bass parts, often with one hand nattering away with repetitive passagework while the other offers a more elaborate treatment of the basic motif. The four-voice fugue’s angular but generally rising subject enters first in the tenor, then bass, and at length soprano and alto. Its countersubject is an elaboration of what initially sounds like little more than a rising and falling scale. Source: Allmusic (). Although originally written for Harpsichord. I created this Arrangement of the Prelude in Ab Major (BWV 862 No. 1) for Oboe & Classical Guitar. Sheet music made with MuseScore -