Blog

Das wohltemperierte Klavier I, BWV 846, Praeludium

wtc
This is a version of Bach’s first movement from the Well Tempered Clavier, the Praeludium. I absolutely love the version of this on the piano by Sviatoslav Richter, where he plays it so softly and perfectly.

This version uses finger piano samples, taken from an instrument I built back in 1978 or so. I’ve been using the samples for almost 10 years for all kinds of music. I carefully filed down a dob of solder that I applied to the tips of the spring steel blades so that the overtone is exactly two octaves higher than the fundamental. Without the solder, the overtone is enharmonic. I accidentally discovered that I could tune the overtone when I added solder just to get the pitch lower in a smaller space. The fact that I could tune it was a bonus I would have never known was possible. It was only by fiddling around with a small steel file and a soldering iron for untold hours in the basement room B-160 in Mandeville Center at U.C.S.D. that I made the discovery.

or download here:
wtc #5
wtc

Doxology #4

Here is another version with some slides showcasing Prent’s Microtonal Slide Bosendorfers ability to bend notes, even across multiple octaves.

The tuning is Just Intonation for each measure, but it changes from measure to measure, so the are many comma-sized changes from one measure to the next, where a note from one measure changes by a comma in the next.


or download here:
Dox #5
dox