Bach's Well-tempered Clavier:The 48 Preludes and Fugues.

by David Ledbetter. Yale University Press (P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040), 2002. 352 pp., $40.

Bach's magnum pedagogical opus--a goldmine of contrapuntal wizardry, keyboard challenges and characterful music. It has found its way to the music rack of virtually every keyboard-playing musician since Bach first gathered his 48 Preludes and Fugues into two volumes in 1722 and 1744 respectively.

David Ledbetter, senior lecturer at Manchester's Royal Northern College of Music in the United Kingdom, has added significantly to the literature on the Well-tempered Clavier with his recent monograph. Ledbetter is a specialist in early music, a harpsichordist, historian and composer, with other writings including Harpsichord and Lute Music in 17th-Century France (Macmillan, 1987) and Continuo Playing According to Handel (Oxford University Press, 1990).

The first section of the book takes as its springboard Bach's 1722 fair copy title-page to Volume One, which lays out the work's contents, intended audience and purpose in the typically thorough manner of the day. Ledbetter leads the reader through a learned and well-researched historical consideration of each element of Bach's title page: "Clavier" (instruments), "Well-Tempered" (tuning systems), "Preludes and Fugues" (history and types), "All the Tones and Semitones" (earlier cycles) and "Bach as Teacher."

This is not an easy read, nor is it addressed to the novice musician who knows little about points of musical debate during the baroque era. Plenty of notes and references, a glossary and a bibliography that is exhausting if not quite exhaustive, provide some help to those who would dig deeper. Quotations in German, Italian, Latin and French (translated only in the notes) together with a great many technical terms may discourage some. But perseverance will reward the reader with a greatly deepened awareness of the many contextual factors and previous developments, practices and compositions that shed light on the 48. I found the chapter "Bach as Teacher" especially interesting in light of a statement Ledbetter makes almost in passing: "Bach's mind is remorselessly integrative." The intense and multifaceted musical training of Bach's day certainly resonated with this orientation. A student learned everything from his master: tuning and maintaining instruments, notation and copying, technique, improvisation and composition.

The latter part of the book includes a guide to the individual preludes and fugues that digs into the influences reflected in each piece, its stylistic background and provenance. Though little practical performing advice is given, the research is thorough and deep. If understanding affects performance, and I believe it does, a thoughtful reading of the text is sure to make its mark.

My time with this book has left me itching to get back to the scores and the keyboard to dig again into Bach's inexhaustible musical mine. Ledbetter's work will doubtless prove an illuminating companion in my continuing study of the "Great 48."

Andrew Hisey, Oberlin, Ohio.