![]() ![]() Continuing this ‘psychological’ interpretation, this could mean that Bach did not blame himself. It is as if you are assailed by a tricky problem: could I have handled it differently? What follows is a contemplative piece of self-examination, which results in the return of the same repeated motif, but now with a mostly descending, resigned line. A short motif of eight notes, which always has a rising, questioning end, is repeated about fifteen times in every key, so to speak. In the prelude in three sections, at least, an interesting question appears to be raised. The Prelude and fugue in E-flat major could be interpreted in this way. ![]() The question arises of whether there are compositions in the Well-Tempered Clavier in which you can hear Bach’s frustration about his time in prison. That would date this 1722 collection, or at least parts of it, at least five years earlier. He suggests that Bach composed the first part of the Wohltemperirte Clavier ‘at a place where boredom, frustration and the absence of any musical instrument forced him to find a pastime’. Music lexicographer Gerber, whose father studied with Bach in the 1720s, hints at this episode in guarded terms. Bach only received his (dishonourable) dismissal four weeks after he had been put in prison for being ‘too obstinate in requesting his dismissal’. His new job in Köthen, for instance, caused considerable differences of opinion in his employers in Weimar. In his younger years, Bach was rather a hot-head. ![]()
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