BACH'S 48 PRELUDES AND FUGUES
•Played through consecutively at this hour daily throughout the month.
IN yesterday's note something was said about the idea underlying Bach's ' 48.' One of the first things that must strike one in hearing a succession of these Preludes and Fugues is their infinite variety of style and mood, and the wonderful expressiveness of .the Fugues in particular.
On the Clavichord, the favourite domestic keyboard instrument of Bach, much more expression and delicacy could be obtained than on the Harpsichord.
The modem Piano, of couree, can reproduce all the delicate gradations of tone that the Clavichord could give; but a few enthusiasts, who have made a study of the older instrument, affirm that, in its miniature fashion, its tone is not excelled in beauty and subtlety by even the finest Grand Pinno of to-day.
The two hooks of the ' 48 ' represent distinct periods in Bach's career. The first was completed in 1722,' when the Composer was thirtyeeven, and was engaged as chief musician to a German Prince; the second dates from 1744, when he was nearly sixty, and had long been in possession of his great final post as a church musician at Leipzig.