Le clavier bien tempéré I - Prélude 10 BWV 855

About this work

The Prelude in E minor changes character as it unfolds. The opening broken chords gather contained energy; the Presto then releases two rapid voices that answer each other. The transition should sound decisive without suggesting that two separate pieces have been pasted together.

In the first section, direct each group of notes towards its point of support and listen to the bass. Settle the fingering before increasing the speed. For the Presto, practise each voice separately, then deliberately reverse their dynamic roles: this exercise will help you decide which voice should later come to the foreground.

Preparing the change of movement

Do not rush the last bars of the first section. Hold their tension through to the cadence, breathe, then establish the new pulse. Limit the pedal until the connections and releases are clear; speed is unforgiving of harmonies left trailing behind.

Edition and files


Keyboard: the complete prelude is distributed across two staves.
Figures: 41 bars fill three US Letter pages; the MIDI sequence generated from the same musical text contains 1,251 attacks.
Credit: Bach's composition is in the public domain and Knute Snortum's LilyPond edition is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The notes and change of movement were checked by LesPartitions.info, which also prepared the downloads and credited the site in the PDF.