Synopsis
An offbeat guide to Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard masterwork, the "Well-Tempered Clavier," presents a series of forty-eight essays--one for each of the piece's fugues--that illuminate the famous musical work
Reviews
Written as a teaching tool, J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is a cornerstone of Western art music. Each of its two books consists of 24 preludes and fugues in all the keys possible to classical tonal music. From Mozart's time on, the WTC has taught musicians the richness of classical tonality and remained a steady source of inspiration to performers, composers, and music lovers of all types. Definitely a music lover, Altschuler is obsessed with the WTC. The result of lifelong study, Bachanalia combines deep understanding of Bach with an offbeat, lively presentation, based on Bill James' style of statistical analysis of baseball teams, that offers the uninitiated much useful background information on Bach and the WTC and provides a detailed essay on and thumbnail structural schema of each fugue. The approach works fairly well, for, like baseball teams, fugues are generally similar and specifically unique. Altschuler is particularly good at explaining fairly arcane, technical music-theory terms to those without musical training and at showing how a given fugue can be heard employing the techniques described. Exuberantly written, each page testifies to Altschuler's passion. John Shreffler
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.