Le clavier bien tempéré I - Prélude 09 BWV 854

About this work

Prelude No. 9 from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier, in E major, unfolds a remarkably supple three-voice texture. The upper voice sings with ornaments while middle and bass lines answer each other and gently shift the harmony.

The challenge is to preserve three durations and three directions without weighing down the keyboard. Locate imitations, suspensions and cadences structuring the phrase. Ornaments need to extend the song; more widely spaced bass notes define the harmonic rhythm and do not necessarily require greater volume.

Practise the voices in pairs before assembling the whole. Choose fingerings that allow long notes to be held and resolutions released. Very measured pedal can support legato on the piano, but it must not merge the voices; retain a calm pulse and let cadences breathe.

What the document containsDocument: The document contains 2 pages in PDF format. A MIDI file also helps locate the continuity and entries. The preserved PDF is two pages long and contains the complete Prelude No. 9 BWV 854 for keyboard.The historical record attributes the engraving to Mutopia. Its record identifies the 1866 Breitkopf & Härtel edition as the source and public domain; the LesPartitions.info PDF carries the site backlink. The file preserved by LesPartitions.info can be compared with the reference catalogue. Following that check, LesPartitions.info separates established facts from information that remains incomplete.