GRMUS 610T — Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier in Context

Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is the foundation of all necessary musical study. It is not only two books of elegant preludes and fugues, but also an entire treatise on harmony, tuning, and temperament; every composer since Bach has encountered it or can expect to as they develop their craft. But why did Bach write two volumes? Wasn’t one enough? This course will investigate the answer to these questions and more through an examination of the compositional inspiration of the Well-Tempered Clavier, including the sets of preludes and fugues in all the keys both during and after Bach’s time. The course will explore tuning, temperament, and their harmonic implications as well as the stylistic implications of Bach’s approach to compositional structure. References to the Inventions, Sinfonias, Suites, Clavier-Übung, Art of Fugue, and Musical Offering will all be considered.