The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 847. Both hands race in the same pattern until the music breaks into a sudden flurry and a slow, solemn close.
The story
The second prelude of the Well-Tempered Clavier follows the calm Prelude in C, which is also in this library. Where that one floats, this one drives.
For most of the piece both hands repeat the same restless figure, a bar at a time. Near the end the pattern breaks: a fast flourish (Presto), a slow pause (Adagio), and a final rush to the close.
Two things to know
- Bach first wrote a shorter version of it for his son Wilhelm Friedemann, in a notebook of teaching pieces.
- Each hand plays mostly sixteenth notes from the first bar to bar 27.
How to play it
Keep both hands exactly together and even, like a machine, so that the sudden changes near the end really surprise.