P.D.Q. Bach - The Short Tempered Clavier

P.D.Q. Bach - The Short Tempered Clavier, Preludes and Fugues in All the Major and Minor Keys except for the Really Hard Ones (S. 3.14159, easy as) 0:00 - C Major 2:48 - C Minor 4:39 - C# Minor 8:16 - D Major 9:50 - D Minor 12:18 - E♭ Major 14:38 - F Major 18:40 - G Minor 20:45 - G Major 23:20 - A Major 26:58 - A Minor 28:39 - B♭ Major Christopher O'Riley, piano Of all the unearthments of P.D.Q. Bach manuscripts achieved by the present editor, of which manuscripts there are now almost a hundred (which, by the way, is more pieces than Webern wrote, and look at all the attention he gets, am I wrong?), that of The Short-Tempered Clavier was one of the most thrilling of all of them to unearth, not only because it is far and away the magnumest of the few solo keyboard opuses left to us by the twenty-first of Johann Sebastian Bach's twenty children, nor because it throws such an interesting light on the history and origins of some of the most common coins in the currency of modern American musical lore (of which more later), but also because it is so obviously inspired by, or based upon, or cribbed from, the composer's father's best-known Elfenbeingreifenstück (German, meaning, literally, "ivory tickle work," or, more colloquially, "composition for the musical keyboard"), proving once again, if proof were necessary, that Newton was right when he formulated his law stating that "every Jekyll has an equal and opposite Hyde." In terms of form, The Short-Tempered Clavier follows that of the earlier Well-Tempered Clavier, that is, it consists of a series of preludes and fugues, each in a different key, with the major and minor modes equally represented. The P.D.Q. Bach work has only half as many pieces as does each volume of his father's opus; whether the decision to omit some keys is due, as P.D.Q.'s subtitle suggests, to a desire on the part of the composer not to overtax the abilities of the performer, or simply to laziness on the part of the composer, is a moot point. Whichever the case, the decision, as an artistic decision, is certainly to be applauded. DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to this music/song. All rights belong to the owner. No Copyright Infringement Intended.