Minsoo Sohn Piano Recital - Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I
For the use and profit of the musical youth desirous of learning, and for the especial diversion of those already skilled in this study. — Bach, dedication on the title page of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, Köthen, 1722
At a glance 🔭💭
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The people on stage ⏳🌊
- PianoMinsoo Sohn
The first Korean to win Canada's Honens International Piano Competition, Minsoo Sohn went on to place at one international competition after another, among them the Busoni·Cleveland·Hilton Head·Rubinstein. The New York Times called Sohn's Bach recording 'a beautiful, lucid and radiant interpretation' and named it one of the best classical albums of the year. From 2017 to 2021 Sohn brought all thirty-two of Beethoven's piano sonatas to the stage and released the complete cycle on record, and in the 2023/24 season toured the country with Bach's Goldberg Variations. After teaching at Michigan State University and the Korea National University of Arts, Sohn has taught at the New England Conservatory in Boston since the fall of 2023 — among the students is Yunchan Lim. The 2026/27 season is a recital tour centered on Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and the October 16 performance is one chapter of that journey.
- ComposerJohann Sebastian Bach
Born in Eisenach in 1685, died in Leipzig in 1750. The years 1717–1723, when Bach served as Kapellmeister at the court of Köthen, were a time without church-music duties — the Brandenburg Concertos, the Cello Suites and, in 1722, Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier all came out of these few years. Twenty years later, in Leipzig, Bach wrote Book II to the same design. The forty-eight pairs, making one full circuit of the twelve major and twelve minor keys, became the textbook and the proving ground for every keyboard musician who followed.
- Tuning theoristAndreas Werckmeister
1645–1706. An organist and theorist, Werckmeister proposed in 1691, in Musicalische Temperatur, tunings that abandoned no key. Until then, tuning had kept only a few keys pure, while the distant ones howled like 'wolves'. Werckmeister's 'well-tempered' approach opened all twenty-four major·minor keys on the twelve notes to use, and Bach's title points to exactly that word.
- PrecedentJohann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer
Around 1702, Ariadne musica — twenty short pairs of preludes and fugues traveling through nearly every key, its title borrowed from the thread Ariadne gave for escaping the labyrinth. Bach knew the collection and even borrowed one of its subjects in Book II. Book I brought this precedent to completion across all twenty-four keys, and on a far grander scale.
I. The well-tempered keyboard — a house of twenty-four rooms · 1722
(Title) The Korean title, pyeonggyunyul ('equal temperament'), is only half right. The word Bach wrote was 'wohltemperirt', that is, 'well-tempered.' It cannot be taken for granted that he meant a tuning dividing every semitone exactly equally, like today's twelve-tone equal temperament — a keyboard was 'well-tempered' if all twenty-four major and minor keys on the twelve notes could be used, and which tuning Bach actually employed is still debated. The prevailing view is a tuning in which each key has a slightly different color — the systems Werckmeister proposed in 1691. Until then the keyboard was an instrument on which only a handful of keys rang clear; stray into distant keys and the chords howled like a 'wolf.' The well-tempered keyboard opened all twenty-four rooms for the first time. (Design) And so Bach built a house. Beginning in C major, then C minor, C♯ major, C♯ minor — rising by semitones, alternating major and minor, one prelude and one fugue for each of the twenty-four keys. The fair copy was completed in Köthen in 1722, and its title page declared it written 'for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning.' Indeed, early versions of eleven of the preludes first appear in the keyboard book he had made two years earlier for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. A book born as a textbook stands, three centuries later, at the very heart of the recital. (Köthen) The court at Köthen was Reformed and had little use for liturgical music. For Bach, who had lived as a church musician, these few years were an unexpected open margin — the Brandenburg Concertos, the Cello Suites, the Sonatas and Partitas for violin, and this collection all came from the same desk. Leopold, the young prince who loved music, held Bach dear. (The last eight) The October 16 program is the last eight rooms of this house. From A♭ major to B minor — Nos. 17 to 24. If the first sixteen were a journey up a ladder of semitones from C major, passing by turns through bright keys and shaded ones, these eight are that ladder's last eight rungs. Here lies the answer to why the final fugue of Book I, of all things, has a chromatic subject that uses all twelve notes.
First, one full lap of the house. Only after you have absorbed, in your body, the design of twenty-four pairs climbing by semitones will the eight pairs from No. 17 onward sound like 'the last rooms.' Short on time? Just the final third.
- Prelude No. 1 in C major — a first room built of harmony alone, the door to the whole book
- The rhythm of major and minor in turn — light and shade alternating
- From the start of No. 17 (A♭ major), exactly the concert program
II. Seventeen to twenty-four — the characters of eight pairs
(17 · A♭ major BWV 862) A bright, buoyant start. The prelude skips lightly like a dance, and the four-voice fugue shows its wit with a subject full of wide leaps. Laughter to open the door on the eight. (18 · G♯ minor BWV 863) Straight into shadow. The prelude passes between the hands like a conversation, and the four-voice fugue, a single tritone (G♯–C𝄪) lodged at the heart of its subject, settles quietly downward — no inversion, no stretto, the most introverted pair of the eight. (19 · A major BWV 864) The subject of the three-voice fugue is famous — it strikes a single note, rests, and only then goes on. Simply counting how many times that hiccup of a first note pops up across the piece can teach you the pleasure of listening to fugue. (20 · A minor BWV 865) One of the longest fugues in Book I. Four voices, eighty-seven bars, the subject entering thirty-nine times, and the long, sturdy subject also appears turned upside down (inversion). It ends like an organ piece over a pedal point, a single low note held at length — the passage that prompts the remark that two hands are not enough and a pedalboard is needed. The prelude before it is a two-voice, toccata-like dash. (21 · B♭ major BWV 866) The prelude is the star. The most brilliant prelude in Book I, its scales and broken chords sweep the keyboard like a toccata. The three-voice fugue, light and cheerful, answers the preceding storm with laughter. (22 · B♭ minor BWV 867) The center of gravity of the eight. The prelude is an elegy (哀歌) of slow chords, and the fugue is one of only two five-voice fugues in Book I (the other is No. 4 in C♯ minor). The subject sets down two slow notes, leaps a minor ninth, then descends closely in eight eighth notes, and at the end comes a stretto in which all five voices crowd in with the subject. One of the summits of Bach's counterpoint. (23 · B major BWV 868) Light again. The prelude flows clearly and the four-voice fugue is gentle. A place to catch one's breath before the last room. (24 · B minor BWV 869) The close of Book I. 'Andante' over the prelude, 'Largo' over the fugue — a rare instance of tempo markings in Book I. The prelude is like a trio sonata, two voices singing over a walking bass, and the fugue's subject uses all twelve semitones without leaving out a single one. The book that traveled through twenty-four keys shuts its door with a subject that holds all twelve notes — at once the completion of the design and a confession. Years later, in the same B minor, he wrote a Mass.
Four voices, eighty-seven bars — one of the longest fugues in Book I. The subject enters by turns upright and inverted, and the end closes like an organ over a low pedal point.
- The fugue's first subject — commit this long, sturdy melody to memory
- The inverted subject (inversion) — the moment the same melody descends as in a mirror
- The ending — voices layering to a close above a single low note held at length
One of only two five-voice fugues in Book I. After the prelude's slow elegy, the subject leaps a minor ninth at its outset, and at the end comes a stretto with all five voices densely overlapping — the center of gravity of the eight.
- Prelude — slow steps of harmony, the weight of each note
- The great leap at the head of the fugue subject (minor ninth) — from the second note to the third, the sign by which to recognize the subject
- The final stretto — the density of five voices entering on the subject in overlap
The close of Book I. The Andante prelude is a duet over a walking bass; the subject of the Largo fugue uses all twelve semitones without omitting one. The piece to hear again the day before the concert.
- Prelude — a song traded between two voices over a walking bass
- Fugue subject — count the twelve different notes as they appear in turn
- The final chord — where all of Book I comes to a close
III. A preparation route — how to listen to preludes and fugues
(Two genres) A prelude is 'something played beforehand,' a short piece that freely unfolds a single idea. A fugue is music in which one subject appears in turn in several voices, chasing and being chased. So there are two ways of listening, too: in a prelude, follow the mood and the motion of the hands; in a fugue, follow the subject. (Counting the subject) In its first few bars a fugue lets you hear the subject alone — memorize this. Then another voice takes up the same subject a fifth higher (or a fourth lower), that is, in the dominant (the answer). When the subject has sounded once for each voice, the exposition is over; after that the subject returns changing key, turned upside down, stretched out, overlapping. In the hall, simply count 'which entry of the subject is this?' That alone turns fugue from noise into architecture. (Three steps) The recommended route has three stages. First, let Nos. 17 through 24 flow past in a single sitting — the stage of absorbing in your body how the color shifts as the keys climb by semitones. Next, take only the three giants, Nos. 20, 22 and 24, and study them closely with the points on each piece card. On the day before the concert, No. 24 alone once more — plant the twelve-note subject in your ear, and the moment the last fugue begins on stage you will hear all of Book I closing. (On the piano) Bach's 'Clavier' meant not a particular instrument but every keyboard — harpsichord, clavichord, organ. The moment it is played on a modern piano, the performer takes in hand things Bach did not use: a wide dynamic range and the pedal. How far to use them is the whole of interpretation. Minsoo Sohn, who has completed all thirty-two Beethoven sonatas and toured the country with the Goldberg Variations, is known for a Bach with the strength to carry a large design through to the end — whether the eight pairs sound like a single piece is the listening point of this evening. (Applause) A prelude and fugue are a pair. Even when the prelude ends, the fugue follows, so hold your applause. Between pairs, too, if the performer does not lower their hands, it is customary to keep listening. Applause comes after the last chord of the No. 24 fugue has faded — that is the moment Book I closes.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Well-tempered (wohltemperiert)
It differs from the Korean title's pyeonggyunyul ('equal temperament'). It does not mean the same thing as twelve-tone equal temperament, which divides every semitone exactly equally, but refers broadly to tuning methods that abandon no key — Werckmeister's 1691 systems, in which each key has a slightly different color, are the classic example. So Bach's C major and B minor wear different faces even on the same instrument.
Prelude
(Meaning) From the Latin praeludere — 'to play beforehand.' What was originally improvised to warm up the hands before the main piece became a genre of its own. Usually a short piece that drives a single figure or idea through to the end.
Fugue (fuga)
(Meaning) Latin for 'flight.' Music in which one subject appears in turn in several voices, chasing and being chased. The first voice gives the subject, the next an answer in the dominant a fifth higher (or a fourth lower), and after this has been repeated once for each voice (the exposition), the subject returns changing key, inverted and overlapping. No. 22 has five voices.
Stretto
(Meaning) Italian for 'narrowed, tightened.' A passage in which, before one voice has finished the subject, the next pushes in with the same subject and overlaps it — a device used as a fugue drives toward its climax. At the end of the No. 22 fugue in B♭ minor, all five voices overlap in this way.