Keynote Chronicles in Bach's Prelude No 1 in C Major
The Best Moments
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846
I'm Johann Sebastian Bach, and these are the best moments of my Prelude No 1 in C Major. You'll follow one simple pattern of rippling chords, the doorway to my collection of 24 preludes and fugues, and you'll find how much feeling it can hold. Here on this site, my fellow composers and I also teach you to recognize our pieces when they begin, so give the Trainer a go and see for yourself.
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Notes That Can't Sit Still
I open the prelude with a plain C major chord, but instead of pressing the notes down together, I let them ripple out one at a time. It's 35 bars of mostly broken chords, so you could say I found a way to write a lot of music while hardly changing the pattern.
A Walk Through the Neighborhood
Around the middle I start to wander away from C major, and I like to think of it as a stroll where the scenery changes while my walking pace stays the same. The rippling carries on just as steadily on the harpsichord or another keyboard of my day, which is what I meant by "clavier", while the chords underneath take you somewhere new.
One Chord and Out the Door
I end the prelude on a single C major chord, a calm and tidy way to say goodbye after all that rippling. Then comes a fugue of 27 bars, not a dance, so you can settle back in and listen for something quite different.
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So we've reached the last chord, and I'm curious whether you enjoyed learning about the best moments of Prelude No 1 in C Major. I hope the rippling notes sound a little different to you now than they did at the start. What I love most is how a pattern so simple can carry so much feeling, and how it stays that way every time someone sits down to play it. There's still plenty more to explore in this piece, though. A fugue follows the prelude, and it's a very different kind of music, with voices entering one after another. The two belong together in The Well-Tempered Clavier, which holds 24 pairs of preludes and fugues in its first book. Long after my time, Charles Gounod improvised a melody over my prelude, and in 1859 it became the Ave Maria that so many people know. Arvo Pärt later built his Credo around the same prelude, which tells you how far those broken chords can travel. If you'd like to hear any of this for yourself, please click on the links provided and keep exploring Prelude No 1 in C Major. I think you'll find something new each time you listen.