Well-Tempered Clavier II: 48 Preludes and Fugues (BWV 870-893) (Hardback)

J S Bach Well-Tempered Clavier II: 48 Preludes and Fugues (BWV 870-893) (Hardback)

New Bach Edition Series V/6/2

”The ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ is the Old Testament, Beethoven's sonatas the New.  We must believe in both.” Hans von Bülow

The preludes and fugues of “The Well-Tempered Clavier” embrace an entire cosmos of compositional devices and musical characters – the “ne plus ultra” of ‘unity through diversity’.  Here Bach not only presented the sum total of keyboard artistry in his day but foresaw its future evolution.  His treatment of the keys marked a turning point in music history.

The New Bach Edition is an Urtext edition offering the world of scholarship a reliable musical text which is equally useful in performance. Prepared with the most exacting methods of source criticism, it has set new standards for modern scholarly-critical editions in the latter half of the 20th century.

BÄRENREITER URTEXT

In the international music world “Bärenreiter Urtext” is synonymous with performing editions in which the musical text has been prepared using clearly formulated scholarly critical criteria. Editors which include prominent musicologists as well as musicians take all available sources into account, thus guaranteeing an authentic musical text which represents the latest in musicological research.

For Bärenreiter, “Urtext” is more than just a label – it is also a pledge and a guarantee for sheet music performing editions that present the authentic text and the latest findings of scholarly research, enabling musicians to get as close to the composer’s intentions as the surviving sources will allow.   There are no arbitrary editorial additions, and the quality of the musical text is matched by an appearance on the page that satisfies the most discerning eye.