The Essay reflects upon the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier by JS Bach, his landmark collection of Preludes and Fugues in every available key. Journalist and writer Rachel Cooke considers the role of the Well-Tempered Clavier as domestic music – written in a busy household to be played in busy households for centuries to follow.

Technical Producer... Mike Etherden
Production co-ordinator... Sara Benaim

Written and presented by Rachel Cooke
Produced by Abigail le Fleming

A BBC Audio Production for Radio 3

About the essayist...

Rachel Cooke is an award-winning journalist. She is a writer and columnist at the Observer, and the television critic of the New Statesman. Her series about spinsters and other singletons, The Odd Woman, was broadcast on Radio 3 in 2020. Her book, Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary
Women of the Fifties, is published by Virago. She is currently working on The Reckoning, a book exploring ideas around bad behaviour and good art. Show less