Johann Sebastian Bach — The Well-Tempered Clavier I, Volume 2 — Notebook

The second half of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, in Bach's own hand. Then pages of your own.

The document

In 1722, at the court of Köthen, Bach wrote out twenty-four preludes and fugues, a pair in every major and minor key, as a fair copy for his pupils to copy from. The autograph is kept today at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. This second volume follows its surviving second half, F-sharp major to B minor: leaves 25 recto to 45 verso, in order, with Bach's title page. One leaf is lost, with the whole F-sharp major fugue and the opening of the F-sharp minor prelude; the notebook shows where, and does not fill the gap.

Inside the notebook

First, a short guide of its own: the last fugue, whose subject sounds all twelve semitones of the octave in three bars, shown on Bach's page with the name of every note; why B-sharp is C on a keyboard; the title page in its six parts; how to read his score; the missing leaf and where the music resumes; and the paper, ink and repairs of a manuscript he kept revising.

Then the manuscript, each verso facing the recto that follows it, every leaf at the same scale, 87% of its size.

Then the pages are yours: 60 pages of staff paper, six systems of two staves to a page, ruled at the size and spacing of the staves Bach wrote on.

A4, spiral-bound, it lies flat. This is the second of two volumes; the first holds the first twelve preludes and fugues, C major to F minor.

Johann Sebastian Bach · Das Wohltemperirte Clavier, Book I · autograph · 1722–23 · leaves 25 recto–45 verso · Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Mus.ms. Bach P 415