Description
Today we celebrate the tercentenary of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. The autograph fair copy of the work (D-B, Mus. ms. Bach P 415) bears the year ‘1722’ at the bottom of its title-page, implying that Bach completed the work that year.It does not mean that the work was done and dusted, however. Scholars have learned that the composer revisited it from time to time, changing details of the musical text, that continued for two decades; they also found that in 1722 Bach was not simply making a fair copy; he was at the same time improving the inner logic of the composition of some movements, suggesting that the act of copying for him was another opportunity to appreciate artistically. A close examination of what Bach considered necessary then informs us of his artistic desire from which performers should be able to gain inspirations that leads to conviction in their own rendition.
As with any manuscripts, Bach’s autograph manuscripts can tell their own stories about their origin and circumstances -- e.g. why they were needed and how they became in the shape as they now appear -- by means of a careful and systematic examination. They also contain the information relating to the broader conventions of his time that conditioned the way he engaged with music, which became no longer accessible to us unfortunately, that may inform us of what Bach considered as priorities while scripting his compositions and what appeared through his quill to paper that did not go through Bach’s conscious decision making as they just naturally came to his body as his training allowed him to that are equally important for us to understand when interpreting what he did. Recently I proposed a new methodology which allows us to gain access to this hitherto inaccessible area of Bach’s habit of writing his music, viz. his quaver beaming. Through the lens of Bach’s notational choice, we begin to see Bach’s compositional strategies as well as his ideas about articulation, tempi and the character of the piece.
| Period | 22 Jun 2022 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Clavicembalo ben temperato 300 anni dopo: Torino, 21 – 22 giugno 2022 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Turin, ItalyShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |