Selected Didactic works for Keyboards by Johann Sebastian Bach

Abstract

J.S. Bach is known as the great organist and composer in Baroque period. There are many compositions he composed for a commission, leisure, church, and many more. However, it could be seen as well that one genre of his composition that lends a huge impact to musicians in the next generations until today, is the pedagogical work. This document provides a discussion about selected didactic repertoire by Johann Sebastian Bach. There is a discussion about J.S. Bach’s pedagogical method which led to the reason why he would write a piece of music to make a connection between such technical or musical issues and the actual composed music. The selected repertoire illustrated in this paper are the first, three Clavierbüchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and the other two for Anna Magdalena Bach. The second selected set are, Aufrichtige Anleitung or two-part and three-part inventions and eventually, the third selected set is The Well-tempered Clavier. The general information about each works as well as historical background and significant information regarding to specific pieces such as sinfonia no. 1, 6, and 11 in the selected set are also provided in this paper. This document also examined historical line of some musical genre, for example, an emergence of prelude and fugue as well as the development of this genre from then until these days. This document will help expanding the understanding of Bach’s didactic works especially in the keyboard pedagogy area.