Bachanalia: The Essential Listener's Guide to Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier"

by Eric Lewin Altschuler, Stephen Jay Gould

Altschulers essays — one for each of the 48 fugues in the Well-Tempered Clavier — are joyously conceived & written in a spirit of true adventure. They are full of playful, clever analogies to horror movies, human nature, football games, even sex. Peppered with fascinating lore, here is a listeners guide that renders sophisticated musical concepts with simplicity & clarity & opens the door to a world of musical appreciation. Combines deep understanding of Bach with an offbeat, lively presentation that offers useful background information on the schema of each fugue. An exciting innovation in popular education.

Genres: Music

254 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1994

Reviews

[Natty S · Rating 3 out of 5]

AKA the Trainspotter's Guide to the Well-Tempered Clavier.

It does have some use, but if you don't have much musical training, it's a LOT of work. His guides to each of the fugues (but NOT the preludes!) does have the effect of giving the reader a sense through sheer repetition what exposition, subject, stretto (er, mostly), voice, etc. are. And in learning all this, a sense of the form of a fugue. But his focus on using a statistical analysis for music is just soul-numbing. Perhaps it's fun to do with baseball stats, but it makes Bach feel like a musical masturbator.

What I'd love is a nice "biography" of the WTC that really captures its spirit and legacy.