I was back in around 5 minutes. He handed me back the music, looked thoughtful for a moment, then proceeded to whistle, with perfect accuracy, the right hand part, then the left. If I‘d been given an hour or so, I’d like to think I could have done the same. But 5 minutes? I was astonished. Clearly, I had work to do.

Over the next few years I practised memorising away from the piano. Sometimes I’d give myself a simple piece to memorise on the train to London (about 45 mins in total). It was a great feeling to get to the college and a piano, then slowly stagger through a little piece I’d just managed to get into my head. Grade 1 pieces became quite manageable, but I found it difficult to graduate upwards. 

Several years later, during a holiday in the beautiful town of Richmond , Yorkshire, I spent a couple of hours each day sitting in the main square, attempting to commit to memory Bach’s Fugue in A major. It was extremely difficult and after a whole week, I’d managed no more than a couple of bars. I decided I would have to return to my usual way of memorising fugues in my Bach journey, about which, more in the next post. For now, memorising away from the piano had been a fascinating challenge.

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I was sitting in my cosy lounge one evening after a long day of teaching, listening to my Barenboim CD by candlelight. I remember being very tired, almost dozing, when I was brought abruptly awake by the penultimate cadence of the great C sharp minor fugue. I could hardly believe what I’d heard. As if to make the remarkable dissonance shocking to 21^st century ears (as it must have appeared to Bach’s contemporaries), Barenboim had added an extra octave in the bass and reiterated the most dissonant note (marked with a tie in the score). He also played the whole chord fortissimo, concluding the final bars with a very affecting diminuendo. I’d heard the piece several times before, but for the first time I was aware of it having a powerful structure, and the ending a striking inevitability.

There were many other instances where I found that, in Barenboim’s hands, Bach was speaking to me in a voice I could understand and appreciate. I found myself, by turn, moved, amused, shocked and astonished at the drama or profound beauty of this sublime music.

Now that I had been shown a way in which I could really appreciate Bach’s keyboard music, I found I was able to greatly enjoy masterful, and perhaps more authentic interpretations of the WTC by pianists like Andras Schiff, and Angela Hewitt. I also discovered a wonderful account on YouTube by the little-known Evelyne Crochet.

In the printed cycle of preludes and fugues, today’s B major prelude comes after the haunting B flat minor fugue. Heard in that context it is, for me, like seeing the clouds lifting after a period of dark and unsettled weather; simple and understated but expertly structured. The 4-voice fugue is also short but challenging to play. By contrast it is rather ebullient, announcing itself with assured self confidence.

Prelude and Fugue in B major:

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I’m now 10 years into my project to learn, memorise and perform all 24 of Bach’s preludes and fugues from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier.When I began, back in October of 2012, I thought 2 years would be be about right. I planned to give a performance of the whole book to coincide with my 50th Birthday in 2014. But the challenge soon turned out to be a bit bigger than I’d anticipated…

Since learning the inaugural E major I’ve managed to get, for a short time at least, another 17 under my fingers and into my brain. At the time of writing, I’m halfway through the E flat major, and still have C, B flat and A flat majors, G and E flat minors left. My new target is 2024, when I’ll be celebrating my 60th. I think I can manage the remaining 5 and a half by then, but knocking all the others back into shape at the same time is going to be the tough part.

So, as I have almost 24 months left, I thought to help with my preparation, I’d aim to post one prelude and fugue every month until September 2024. This month’s update is the G major. I first learned it 36 years ago when I was studying at the Royal Academy of Music. I re-learned it in 2017 and again this year, but haven’t done any performing since somehow, getting through Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata at the City Lit three years ago.

So, I’ve been trying to video a decent recording of this comparatively tiny piece, and it’s been amazingly scary. A couple of times, I put some tidy clothes on, got the camera angle I wanted and pressed ‘record’. But I couldn’t get what I wanted. This morning however, before getting properly dressed, I was enjoying my practice, and decided to strike while the iron was hot. Apologies for the dressing gown. I’ll try Covent Garden next time…

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Now, 10 years later, I have managed to learn 18 of the total twenty-four. Memorisation has been successful for some, but it’s an on-going project, as is learning the remainder of the book. I am enjoying the most amazing piano-journey in which I have discovered far more about piano-playing than I believed existed. I am endlessly indebted to Johann Sebastian Bach for putting this remarkable collection together for people like me, who wish to develop their keyboard-playing.

I wanted to try a variety of ways of learning the pieces; to listen to the advice I’d heard over the years from many great teachers, but never quite got round to putting into action.

Like most of Bach’s music, the Well-Tempered Clavier, or Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues, as they are often known, were not published during his lifetime, although a few hand-written copies were in circulation. They were composed in two separate books, for the benefit of students of the keyboard who wished to improve their playing, and also to demonstrate a new tuning system that made it possible to play in each of the twenty-four keys without needing to re-tune the instrument. Each volume contains one prelude and one fugue in each key. Book 1 was written almost three hundred years ago, and Book 2, some twenty years later.

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