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Six Preludes

Six Preludes

“The Six Preludes are a real treasure. These jewels must be highlighted within the macrocosm of music history.”

Emanuel Melchior

Six Preludes
(für Anfänger auf dem Clavier) par J. S. Bach

Information about the work

The date of composition of these six pieces is unknown. As with the Aria and the 30 Variations, an autograph by Bach is no longer available. The work is known to us today as an autograph by one of Bach’s students: Johann Christian Kittel.

He was a German composer and organist born in Erfurt in 1732. Around 1748, Kittel went to Leipzig with the hope of being taught by Bach. He not only became his student but was occasionally engaged as an accompanist at Bach’s musical performances.

As one of Bach’s last students, he achieved high esteem and taught numerous students in the Bach tradition. Among the admirers of his organ playing were Goethe, Herder and Wieland. A single piece, or even a work consisting of several pieces, as in the case of the Six Little Preludes for Beginners, can certainly lose its original function as a pure finger exercise, assuming it was originally conceived exclusively for that purpose, as soon as the performer’s approach reflects the potential of the piece in question.

Certainly, Bach inevitably resonates with an exuberant genius that lends expressiveness even to a piece of music intended for practice and even allows the musician and listener to experience a spirited intimacy.

From a pianistic perspective, it can be stated that the six preludes, all presented in binary form, function optimally to make the player “firm in his grasp”.

However, it should be added that, depending on the tempo chosen, the pieces are by no means exclusively suitable for beginners. The C major Prelude, for example, is designed in such a way that the hands act strikingly independently of one another. Modulations can be detected in the third Prelude, which is in the main key of D minor.

Six Preludes, Prelude No. 1

Six Preludes, Prelude No. 3

The keys of F major and G minor appear before returning to the home key of D minor. Here, too, harmonic refinements and playing peculiarities are evident. In Prelude No. 6, a pronounced maturity is evident, which, in conjunction with the voice leading, conveys both a serious expression and, to a certain extent, a wise disposition, and at its best, instructive.

This self-contained and self-sufficient harmony can be described most impressively in Goethe’s words. In a letter to his friend Carl Friedrich Zelter dated June 21, 1827, he writes: “On this occasion I remember the good organist in Berka; for it was there, in perfect peace of mind and without external distractions, that I first became aware of your grand master. I spoke it to myself: as if the eternal harmony was talking to itself as it might have happened in God’s bosom, shortly before the creation of the world. So, it was in my inner being, and I felt as if I neither possessed nor needed ears, least of all eyes, nor any other senses.”

This combination of the creative harmony of the voices and their expression per se make these pieces a masterpiece. These jewels should be highlighted within the macrocosm of music history. The “Clavierbüchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach” (“Notebook for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach”) from 1720 and the two “Clavier-Büchlein vor Anna Magdalena Bachin” (“Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach”) from 1722 and 1725 should also receive detailed attention.

Another recommendation is “Nannerl’s music book”.
Compiled by Leopold Mozart from 1759 to around 1764, the book contains pieces intended for his daughter Maria Anna Mozart (known as “Nannerl”) to make it easier for her to learn and practise.

The book was also utilized by his son Wolfgang, whose earliest compositions are documented therein.
The complete music book is appropriate for novice learners. One of the pieces, for example, is an allegro from the fourth sonata from Op. 2: Sei Sonate per il Cembalo Solo accompagnate da alcune Ariette Polonesi e Menuetti by Johan Joachim Agrell.

Sei Sonate per il Cembalo Solo, Op. 2,                          Sonata No. 4 in E minor, allegro – 1st half

The Six Sonatas were originally dedicated to Adolf Friedrich, who reigned as King of Sweden from 1751 until his death in 1771. He was born in 1710, and held the titles of Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf and Prince-Bishop of Lübeck.

The Swedish composer Agrell had a number of his own compositions published by Balthasar Schmid. The same Mr. Schmid who published the Goldberg Variations in 1741.

The Children’s Piece (Kinderstück) by Anton Friedrich Wilhelm (von) Webern is also an appropriate teaching piece.
This can be a nice addition to a beginner’s lesson. It is technically easy to play and, with its underlying row technique, offers an additional way of dealing with playing instructions and thus with the instrument.

Etudes by Carl Czerny, hours of finger exercises by Charles-Louis Hanon, practice pieces for piano 4 hands by Anton Diabelli and content-free children’s pieces in general, which originate from modern times, can therefore be safely bypassed. Parents who want to entertain their child and tell their friends how nice it was to see little Ulysses get his first belt in judo and make clear progress in archery should continue to make sure that contemporary piano pieces for children are taught in piano lessons. 

Kinderstück (Children’s Piece) – Anton Webern

Otherwise, there is a risk that the technical progress made by one’s own offspring, which is too readily presented to friends over an evening glass of red wine as part of a salauding session, can no longer be sold as a success story. Although the narrower key width of a harpsichord offers an advantage for children’s hands, the pieces mentioned can also be technically mastered by such hands on today’s piano. 

To quote Glenn Gould: “One does not play the piano with one’s fingers, one plays the piano with one’s mind.”

One thing is particularly important to emphasize: A musician, regardless of age, should only perform in front of an audience if he or she does so of his or her own free will. Any form of pressure is strictly prohibited. The goal, if that can even be said, is for people to be enriched through music. They must be free to enrich others as well. Furthermore, music also serves to develop a strong character and to become, or be, a sincere human being. Music is therefore ideally a form of expression of one’s own being and can simultaneously be groundbreaking in early years or at least offer guidance. It is nothing more. And nothing less!

It should be noted that the pianists and composers Gould and Chopin generally rejected performing in public. Gould even went so far as to call it absolute self-deception, and Chopin remarked to Liszt: “I am not the right person to give concerts. The public intimidates me. I feel asphyxiated by the breath of the people in the audience, paralysed by their curious stares and dumb before that sea of unknown faces.”

This “essay” can conclude with a passage from Forkel’s Bach biography of 1802:
“First of all let me show how he taught the Clavier. To begin with, his pupils were made to acquire the special touch of which I have already spoken. To that end for months together he made them practise nothing but simple exercises for the fingers of both hands, at the same time emphasising the need for clearness and distinctness.

He kept them at these exercises for from six to twelve months, unless he found his pupils losing heart, in which case he so far met them as to write short studies which incorporated a particular exercise. Of this kind are the Six Little Preludes for Beginners, and the Fifteen Two-part Inventions, both of which Bach wrote during the lesson for a particular pupil and afterwards improved into beautiful and expressive compositions.

Besides this finger practice, either in regular exercises or in pieces composed for the purpose, Bach introduced his pupils to the use of the various ornaments in both hands.
Not until this stage was reached did Bach allow his pupils to practise his own larger works, so admirably calculated, as he knew, to develop their powers. In order to lessen their difficulty, it was his excellent habit to play over to them the pieces they were to study, with the remark, “That’s how it ought to sound.” It would be difficult to exaggerate the helpfulness of this method.

The pupil’s interest was roused by hearing the piece properly played. But that was not the sole result. Without the help thus given the pupil could only hope to overcome the difficulties of the piece after considerable effort, and would find it much less easy to realise a proper rendering of it.

As it was, he received at once an ideal to aim at and was taught how to surmount the difficulties the piece presented. Many a young performer, still imperfect after a year’s practice, probably would master his music in a month if he once had it played over to him.”

Six Preludes, Prelude No. 4 – 2nd half

Six Preludes, Prelude No. 5 – 2nd half

“An Invention is a musical theme so constructed that by imitation and inversion a whole movement can be evolved from it. The subject having been first stated, the rest develops naturally out of it. For the instruction of a young Clavier player these fifteen Inventions are of great value, seeing that the composer has been careful not only to provide exercises for both hands but for every finger as well. They were composed at Cöthen in 1723, with a long title which begins: “An honest Guide, in which lovers of the Clavier are shown a clear method of playing correctly in two parts,” etc.

It cannot be denied that, among other blemishes, the Inventions occasionally exhibit melodic poverty and roughness. But finding them useful to his pupils, Bach eventually revised them and removed from them everything that offended his maturer taste, so that they now stand as masterpieces of pure music. Moreover they are invaluable exercises for the fingers and hands and are sound instructors of taste. There is no better introduction to Bach’s larger works than they afford.

Fifteen three-part Inventions, also called Symphonies. They were written for the same purpose as the Inventions, but are more advanced.”

The Six Preludes were first printed in 1802.
Beethoven received the sheet music for this first edition in the same year. It is particularly interesting to note that there are striking similarities between Bach’s Prelude No. 1 and Beethoven’s – Sonata No. 18, Op. 31 No. 3 – II. Scherzo. Allegretto vivace.

Beethoven’s affection and reverence for Bach’s works is probably well known to some art lovers, or at least to some art enthusiasts; his contribution to the Bach renaissance of the early 19th century should undoubtedly be given more attention than it has so far.

The fact that Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a pupil of the aforementioned C. F. Zelter, who also promoted the Bach renaissance and was certainly a trailblazer for Mendelssohn’s attitude towards Bach shows a historical connection and is also noteworthy.

EMANUEL MELCHIOR PLAYS
BACH • AGRELL • WEBERN

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