J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Volume II: Piano Comb Bound Book

This edition brings scholarly rigor to a work that often intimidates advanced pianists. Schneider and Sofianska's research notes address the real questions players ask: how to voice inner lines, where ornamentation belongs, when and how the pedal serves the music rather than obscures it. The comb binding means the score stays open on the fallboard during practice and performance, and the included Naxos recording provides a reference performance that respects both historical awareness and modern piano technique.

The Well-Tempered Clavier unfolds as a series of complete musical arguments, each prelude and fugue a different approach to the same harmonic material. Volume II deepens the exploration begun in Volume I, moving into registers and key relationships that test both hands and musical imagination. The emotional range spans from crystalline clarity to dense polyphonic drama, often within a single piece.

Advanced pianists and serious students working toward recital or examination performances. Music teachers and professors preparing students for Bach require comprehensive performance edition that combines scholarly apparatus with practical guidance. This edition serves pianists who want historical context without sacrificing the physicality of modern instrument mastery.

• Study the ornamentation discussion before interpreting any prelude; Bach's written ornaments are structural, not decorative, and affect harmonic rhythm and phrasing weight.
• Use the fingering suggestions as starting points, not rules. Sofianska's choices reveal voice leading intentions, but your hand size and technique may call for adjustments that maintain her underlying logic.
• Reference the period keyboard discussion when choosing touch and tone color. The Well-Tempered Clavier sounds different on a harpsichord than a modern piano, and understanding that difference helps you make intentional choices rather than applying default modern habits.
• Trust the tempo and rhythm insights when a fugue feels rhythmically stiff. Bach's metric notations often contain performance information that standard practice obscures.

Program individual preludes and fugues on recitals rather than complete suites; a single pair from Volume II makes a substantial concert statement and showcases both technical control and interpretive maturity. In the studio, use this volume to build comprehensive keyboard musicianship over several years, spacing the keys across multiple lesson cycles and returning to earlier pieces as technique and understanding deepen. Assign selections to advanced students as summer study projects paired with the included recording to build independent learning habits.

• Managing dense inner-voice polyphony across multiple textural layers
• Interpreting Baroque ornamentation and its relationship to harmonic function
• Executing rapid scalar passages with consistent touch and voicing clarity
• Coordinating both hands across extended ranges and register shifts
• Building long-range harmonic architecture and formal coherence in multi-section forms
• Applying historical keyboard knowledge to modern piano interpretation