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The Well-Tempered Clavier: Books I and II, Complete |  | Author: Johann Sebastian Bach
Brand: Alfred Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $5.78
as of 9/8/2010 09:35 CDT details
You Save: $7.17 (55%)
New (19) Used (32) Collectible (2) from $5.78
Seller: firstclassbooks
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 25658
Media: Paperback
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 12.2 x 9.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 0486245322
Dewey Decimal Number: 786.41872
EAN: 9780486245324
ASIN: 0486245322
Publication Date: January 1, 1984
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | Book | | • | By Johann Sebastian Bach |
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Product Description
All 48 preludes and fugues, from Books I & II, in all major and minor keys. Bach-Gesellschaft edition. 208 pgs.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
 Fantastic bargain June 15, 2002
Dr. Christopher Coleman (HONG KONG)
36 out of 36 found this review helpful
Another incredible bargain from Dover. Although I think their edition of the Beethoven complete string quartets (in a single volume!) is probably the best buy in all of music, this edition of The Well Tempered Clavier is a strong competitor. (If only it had included The Art of Fugue!) This is the edition I recommend for my students because of the clarity, absence of artificial or misleading editorial markings, ease of page turns, and cost. It is not perfect; what edition EVER is--in this case, one of my quibbles is that of all the minor key fugues, only ONE (g# minor) ends without a piccardy (raised) third--it simply must be an oversight, and interestingly the accidental already present in the key signature is repeated unnecessarily. Surely B natural should have been B sharp in the final measure. Regardless of the slight problems, this is the single best tool to learn Baroque counterpoint in general and fugue specifically. No textbook I know of is capable of demonstrating the fluidity of form, nor describing the sophistication of melodic and contrapuntal writing that Bach employs. Every book I know of oversimplifies or even avoids the issues that Bach so admirably handles. The answers are here, in the music, not in a text. Absolutely invaluable for the serious music student.
Simple and complete October 13, 1999
r@home
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
No doubt we should be pleased with this edition, stripped clean of editorials, phrasings, and fingerings, it seems very close to the "source," as Bach wrote it without the frills and boxes of an "expert" interpretation. For a basic manuscript, this is the one, complete and clear. It elucidates how much room Bach left us to find ourselves in his music, rather than finding Czerny or Tovey. In this edition, Bach's assurances as a great teacher shine through: solve it yourself, but know that it is all possible.
Fewer Page Turns February 5, 2001
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
This edition is certainly the most inexpensive on the market. True, it is "no frills" Bach--without the help of fingerings and phrasing--but I found the edition very useful. For instance, the Alfred edition takes up six pages for the Fugue in C# Maj, Book I, whereas this Dover edition only takes two. I found this very useful when playing from this edition because page turns are impossible with Bach!!
Bach's WTC ranks only 4-1/2 stars? May 18, 2002
Stephen Malinowski (Richmond, CA United States)
22 out of 25 found this review helpful
When I saw that The Well-Tempered Clavier had only received four and half stars, I asked myself "if one of the supreme masterworks of one of the greatest composers of all times only gets four and a half stars, what the heck gets five stars?"
I love this music, and I like the Dover edition. It's true, it's not quite as legible as the Henle Urtext edition (what ever is?), but it's as good a version of the score, there are fewer page turns, it contains both books in one volume, and, since it's a fraction of the price of the Henle edition, you can afford to buy two copies, one for writing in, and one for when you want to look at a clean score.
Amazon's current price comes out to less than five cents a page. You can't photocopy it for less!
I've bought several copies over the years, so that I could give them away to people I thought would enjoy them.
No single work of music, by any composer, has brought me as much enjoyment. I'm buying another copy today so that I can have one in my office and one at home.
I'll stop raving now ...
The price can't be beat June 27, 2006
klavierspiel (TX, USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Dover's strategy of reprinting venerable old editions of classical masterworks has been a godsend for musicians everywhere. Many of their reprints are of critical editions that were the best available at the time. Kroll's edition of Bach works for the Bach Gesellschaft, the source of this particular Dover volume, dates from the mid-nineteenth century, but his Well-Tempered Clavier holds up well scholarship-wise. Although the editors of the modern Henle publication had the benefit of being able to access Bach's autograph of Book II, the differences for the most part are not crucial, and the readings in the Dover volume are entirely defensible even today. Having both books of this cornerstone of the keyboard literature together in one easy-to-read volume makes this a bargain hard to pass up for performers, scholars and serious listeners alike.
The one disadvantage for those interested in the many variant readings of these pieces is that only the editor's choice is given. For a comprehensive survey of the former, the Hans Bischoff edition is worth digging up--it has been reprinted both by Kalmus and G. Schirmer.
Incidentally, I feel compelled to respond to some textual comments on the work itself from other reviewers: 1) The minor ending of the G-sharp minor Fugue from Book I is the reading generally accepted as correct; 2) The extra measure found in some editions of the C major Prelude from Book I is spurious, the product of an overzealous editor of the one of the early printed editions of the WTC, Schwenke. Unfortunately Gounod included it in his Ave Maria based on this prelude, which has ensured its continued existence.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
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