Bach and Keyboard Music — Bridge from Harpsichord to Piano

Bach and the Keyboard — “The Father of Music”

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) played and composed for all four of the keyboard instruments covered in the previous article — harpsichord, clavichord, organ, and the early piano — and developed keyboard music to its ultimate form.

He wrote over 1,000 works in his life, of which hundreds are for keyboard. These sit at the summit of Baroque keyboard music, and they are the basic pedagogical material of modern piano playing — the standard curriculum in music schools worldwide.

Bach’s Life — Outline

• 31 March 1685 — Born in Eisenach, Thuringia, into a family of town musicians
• c. 1695 — Loses both parents; studies organ with his elder brother
• 1703–1707 — Church organist at Arnstadt and Mühlhausen
• 1708–1717 — Organist and later Konzertmeister at the Weimar court. Height of the organ works
• 1717–1723 — Kapellmeister at Cöthen. Height of the secular works (Brandenburg Concertos, WTC Book 1, unaccompanied violin and cello works)
• 1723–1750 — Cantor at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig. St. Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor, WTC Book 2, Goldberg
• 28 July 1750 — Dies in Leipzig, aged 65

He lived his whole life as a church and court musician, and never left Germany (his furthest journey was to Lübeck in the north). Yet his music becomes the core of the world’s music.

Reputation in His Lifetime — as “Organist”

In his lifetime Bach was known chiefly as an organ virtuoso. When he traveled to Potsdam in 1747, Frederick the Great greeted him as “Herr Bach the organist.” International recognition as a composer came only with the 19th-century rediscovery by Mendelssohn.

The most popular composers of his day were not Bach but his son C. P. E. Bach (1714–1788) and Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767). Contemporaries called Bach’s music “old-fashioned.”

Bach’s Keyboards

Four keyboard types Bach used:

1. Organ

• The main instrument of the church, Bach’s professional work
• Over 200 works
• Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor BWV 582

2. Harpsichord (Cembalo)

• Standard for solos, continuo, chamber
• Most of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg, Partitas, and suites are for harpsichord
• Bach owned several at home

3. Clavichord

• Home practice, an introspective instrument
• Especially loved by son C. P. E. Bach
• The Well-Tempered Clavier was often played on it as well

4. Silbermann Piano (from c. 1747)

• Built by Gottfried Silbermann (see previous article)
• Bach criticized the early prototypes
• On his May 1747 visit to Potsdam, he accepted the improved version on the king’s Silbermann

The Well-Tempered Clavier — “The Old Testament of Music”

The Well-Tempered Clavier (Das wohltemperierte Klavier, WTC) consists of a prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys:

• Book 1 (BWV 846–869) — completed 1722, Cöthen period
• Book 2 (BWV 870–893) — completed 1742, Leipzig period
• 48 pieces (24 × 2) in total

“The Old Testament of Music”

Since Hans von Bülow (19th-century pianist-conductor) called the WTC the “Old Testament” and Beethoven’s sonatas the “New Testament,” this label has been standard vocabulary among pianists worldwide.

Composing in all 24 keys requires a tuning system for the whole keyboard. Pure-just intonation only works in a few keys. Bach envisioned a “well-tempered” system — dividing the 12 tones approximately evenly (probably close to but subtly different from equal temperament; scholars still debate the details).

Performance Culture

• The standard exercise and study book
• Full recordings by Rosalyn Tureck, Glenn Gould, Sviatoslav Richter, András Schiff, Daniel Barenboim
• “One piece a day” — a discipline embedded in music schools worldwide

Goldberg Variations (1741)

The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) — an aria (theme) and 30 variations — are Bach’s largest solo work.

Origins

Tradition says Bach’s pupil Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727–1756) played it night after night for the insomniac Count Keyserling. (Modern scholars are skeptical.)

Structure

• Aria (a 32-bar theme)
• 30 variations — every third variation is a canon (at the third, sixth, ninth …)
• Aria da capo (the theme returns at the close)

Called the ultimate variation form. Each of the 30 variations has a distinct character and technique, but the whole is unified by the bass line of the theme (a chaconne bass).

Glenn Gould’s 1955 Recording

In June 1955, the 22-year-old Gould recorded the Goldberg for Columbia. That record is one of the great events of 20th-century classical music: it turned “an obscure work” into a globally famous masterpiece.

Gould re-recorded the Goldberg in 1981 — a “different reading” 26 years later. The first is famous for youth and speed, the second for contemplation and slowness. Gould died in 1982, four months after the re-recording (aged 50; a striking parallel to Turing in the earlier [Lineage of Mathematics] article).

Partitas, English Suites, and French Suites

Bach’s suites follow the standard Baroque form of six dances:

• Allemande — German dance, 4/4
• Courante — French/Italian dance, 3/4
• Sarabande — Spanish dance, 3/4, slow
• Gigue — English/Irish dance, fast
• Others — Gavotte, Minuet, Bourrée

Three Sets of Suites

• Partitas BWV 825–830 (published 1731) — 6 works, the summit of Bach’s keyboard suites
• French Suites BWV 812–817 — 6 works, short and playable
• English Suites BWV 806–811 — 6 works, opening with a prelude

These are the basic teaching material of piano pedagogy worldwide. “You cannot speak of the piano without playing Bach.”

Two- and Three-Part Inventions — Masterpieces of Pedagogy

Two-Part Inventions BWV 772–786 (15 pieces) and Three-Part Sinfonias BWV 787–801 (15 pieces) were written for the education of Bach’s son W. F. Bach.

• Short (1–3 minutes), with clear counterpoint
• The standard beginner material for the piano worldwide
• An introduction to Baroque keyboard music

“First Inventions, then Sinfonias, then WTC” — the standard order in piano education everywhere.

Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903

The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor BWV 903 is Bach’s most passionate and dramatic solo work:

• Fantasia — free improvisational runs, chromatic movement
• Fugue — a lucid three-voice fugue

Sometimes called a prophecy of 19th-century Romanticism. Liszt and Busoni transcribed and performed it. Fine modern performances include Richter, Perahia, Uchida Mitsuko.

1747 — Potsdam and the Musical Offering

In May 1747, the 62-year-old Bach visited his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Potsdam. Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712–1786), a keen amateur musician, owned more than 15 Silbermann pianos.

The Royal Theme

The king gave Bach a theme of his own (the Thema Regium) and asked for an improvised fugue. Bach improvised a three-voice fugue on the spot. He declined to improvise a six-voice fugue immediately and promised to write and send it later.

Musical Offering (Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079)

Back home, Bach worked the royal theme into 13 pieces and dedicated the collection to the king in September 1747:

• Two ricercars (three-voice, six-voice)
• Ten canons
• A trio sonata

The six-voice ricercar is the summit of Bach’s counterpoint. Anton Webern orchestrated it in 1935; modern performances include Richter, Gould, Ciccolini.

Symbolically: “Bach truly accepted the piano” — a moment in music history.

The Rediscovery — Mendelssohn, 1829

For 50–80 years after Bach’s death, his works were largely forgotten. Their recovery began with:

11 March 1829 — Revival of the St. Matthew Passion

The 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Berlin Sing-Akademie — the first performance in 100 years since the 1729 premiere.

This is the great event of the Bach revival. Through the 19th century, all of Bach’s music was rediscovered and published.

The Bach-Gesellschaft

The Bach-Gesellschaft was founded in 1850, the centenary of Bach’s death. A critical complete edition of the works followed (the old Bach-Gesamtausgabe, 1851–1900). This is the basis of modern Bach scholarship and performance.

BWV numbers (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) were catalogued by Wolfgang Schmieder in 1950. They remain the universal reference for Bach’s works.

Bach in Piano Performance

19th Century — Liszt’s Arrangements

Liszt (1811–1886) arranged Bach organ works for piano — famous transcriptions still played today (“Fantasia and Fugue in G minor” among others). The tradition of playing Bach on the piano was established here.

20th Century — Three Styles of Bach

1. Romantic (Busoni, Paderewski) — thick expression, wide dynamics
2. Modern piano (Schiff, Gould, Perahia, Uchida) — clarity, voice independence
3. Historical (Leonhardt, Koopman, Sfetsas) — reconstruction on harpsichord and fortepiano

Modern performers choose or combine these approaches. “There is no single correct way” is a hallmark of Bach performance.

The Lineage of “Bach Players” — 20th and 21st Centuries

• Edwin Fischer (1886–1960) — pioneer of complete WTC recordings
• Wanda Landowska (1879–1959) — leader of the harpsichord revival
• Glenn Gould (1932–1982) — 20th-century icon
• Tatiana Nikolaeva (1924–1993) — Soviet Bach player
• Rosalyn Tureck (1913–2003) — authority on the WTC
• Angela Hewitt (1958–) — 21st-century WTC specialist
• András Schiff (1953–) — comprehensive Bach
• Uchida Mitsuko (1948–) — luminous Bach

A category of “Bach player” was established in the 20th century. “How to play Bach?” is still the touchstone of a pianist.

From This Article to the Next

We have surveyed Bach’s keyboard world. The next article turns to Mozart and Haydn. Mozart’s 27 piano concertos, 18 sonatas, and fantasias, along with Haydn’s sonatas — from Bach’s death in 1750, the fortepiano ascends in half a century to the throne of the solo and concerto instrument of the Classical era. From harpsichord to fortepiano, from church music to court and aristocratic salons.