Introduction
Bach’s Prelude I in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I is one of his most famous pieces and has been widely used across classical, popular, and media contexts.
Films include Master and Commander, The Piano, and Mr Holland’s Opus, as well as various documentaries.
It’s often used in advertising, and has also found its way to adaptations and sampling by the likes of Isao Tomita and George Winston, among many others.
Playing Bach’s Prelude I in C Major
While at first the piece may look daunting, a closer inspection reveals that it is made up from a series of arpeggios — one per measure which repeats — plus a final flourish from bar 33 to the end.
Some advice I was given, as well as playing slowly and steadily to begin with, is to look at each arpeggio as a single five-note chord. For some, playing that chord (split between the left and right hand just as the arpeggio is played, two notes in the left hand followed by three notes in the right hand) helps to imprint what the harmonies sound like.
In any case, we have a 4/4 piece of music with regular sixteenth notes (semiquavers) in each bar. As we’ve said, the left hand plays the first two notes of each arpeggio pattern, holding the first note (which is a half note/minim) for the duration of the arpeggio.
Various different fingers are going to be playing each note of the arpeggio, each with a potential variation in strength. It’s important to try to play smoothly and with even volume throughout. This may mean playing with slightly higher velocity with the left hand little finger, or with slightly lower velocity with the stronger thumb and fingers of the right hand.
Note bar 33 where the clef changes to the bass clef, with the notes still played by the right hand. There is scope for a little slowing towards the end of the penultimate measure (bar 34) to bring the piece to a close.
This is a beautiful piece of piano music, well worth the effort to learn well. It never has to be played particularly fast, even when learned well, unless you are competing in some kind of speed challenge!
Manuscripts and MP3/MIDI files below.
