JS Bach Famous Prelude in C from WTC I on Harpsichord BWV 846

I tuned up the harpsichord today and before it went out of tune again (which starts to happen almost immediately) I decided to record this piece.
Tuning: The harpsichord is tuned in a temperament called Kirnberger III. It makes a C major chord much more in tune than modern equal temperament tuning. In fact the C-E is a perfect true 3rd. This is also means though that the further one gets from C major, the more out of tune the instrument sounds. A C major chord sounds great, but an F# major or Ab major has a lot of nasty beating between the overtones.

Kirnberger was a student of Bach's. Bach never wrote a teaching or performing method. Kirnberger was determined to write out all that he had learned from Bach as carefully as possible. I have a translation of his ideas of harmonic rhythm and repose. To sum it up in a tiny space here: The rhythm of the music (the speed of the music) can reflect the type of harmony you are playing. Now this happens all the time in say Romantic piano music. The difference is that Kirnberger suggests that instead of emphasizing the more dissonant points by pausing there, one instead slows down at points of repose (e.g. when you reach the root chord of the key). This can lead to a wonderful flexible tempo.

Ive tried to do that here in this performance. For the most part C major will be the slowest tempo and the further distant the music gets from there (unstable sounding chords), the faster I play. This creates multi measure rhythmic tempo crescendos in some places because the harmonies go from stable chords to more and more unstable ones, then a V7 chord leading back to C major. Slowing down some on the V7 (G7) chords and then settling down at the tonic (C major) harmony.

The harpsichord is a Dowd Italian 1967. The music is played on the back 8 stop.
My translation of Kirnberger comes from Wanda Landowska's student, Putnam Aldrich who in turn taught my teacher, Margaret Fabrizio (on here as aTree3).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bach
• Prelude
• prealudium
• dur
• major
• BWV-846
• harpsichord
• dowd
• italian
• kirnberger
• well-tempered-clavier
• Baroque
• classical
• cembalo
• temperament
• 古典キーボード
• barok
• klavecimbel
• Praeludium
• C-Dur
• Wohltemperiertes-Klavier
• sfchristo
• atree3
• cravo
• Christo-Bresnahan
• ハープシコード
• clavicembalo
• клавесин
• harpsikord
• well-tempered
• ave-maria

[TheBaroquefan]

Thank you for posting ! I love the way you play it instisting on disonnances offered by the temperament ! Congratulations !

[SFChristo]

@TheBaroquefan Thank you!

[salbella1]

You are very musical SFChristo. Do you think you could make a video of yourself playing it in equal temperament so we could compare it? Thanks

[SFChristo]

@salbella1 Thank you! The overtones on the harpsichord are so bright and strong that equal tempered 3rds and especially 10ths really clash and sound awful. I kept thinking the I just could not tune the instrument and then tried a well-temperament and it fixed the 10ths and they sounded great.

[theillfrisch]

great playing. this is a wonderful temperment to play bach's music in.

[SFChristo]

@theillfrisch Thank you. Perhaps I'll explore more pieces using Kirnberger III. I used to use equal temp. and then wonder why the harpsichord always sounded out of tune. 10ths especially were terrible.

[DanielHewsonPianist]

Ace work, feel free to checkout my own effort.

[jscamach]

beautiful (L)

[yodiepants]

Hooray! How long does it take for the tuning of your instrument to migrate? If it is less than a week or couple days, some of the tuning pins might be loose. While it sounds bad, if you give a gentle whack or two to the pin with a hammer, it will better secure it. :)

[ezcheeze590]

great job, beautiful, it is interesting this interpretation comes from a student of my absolute favorite harpsichordist . wonderful