Prelude of the Week: JS Bach’s Prelude IV from WTC Bk 1
from The Well Tempered Clavier Book 1 (1722)
A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
From “O God Our Help in Ages Past” (paraphrase of Psalm 90:4)
The relativity of time is, by now, common sense to us. How times flies, how it drags, how it seems to speed up the older one gets, how it inexorably moves on, and how it can almost stand still when one is “in the moment”: all of these ideas are familiar.
When playing music, there is another aspect of time that is a crucial part of making sense of a piece: tempo. Tempo, which literally means “time” in Italian (the language of many musical terms), is the speed at which the piece is to be played. The tempo of a piece of music can be clearly indicated by the composer in the score or agreed upon by tradition. A polka, for example, is understood to be a lively piece, while a dirge is slow and solemn. But tempos can also be a subject of hot debate, sometimes around my own dinner table.
Bach did not generally mark the tempos of his compositions and one of the most interesting aspects of playing his pieces is finding the right tempo. This can be quite flexible, as many excellent recordings of The Well Tempered Clavier illustrate. My own tempos do vary day to day, but I hear the piece in my head at a definite tempo and try to recreate that through my fingers. At the risk of sounding mystical, the music is always there, from the mind of Bach to mine and yours. When I play a Bach prelude, I give it physical body: it becomes sound waves in time.
This elegant, somewhat melancholy, Prelude in C sharp minor features a forward moving line (mostly quarter notes in diatonic motion) with affecting leaps upward, along with notes and chords that are suspended across the moving lines. The contrast of the held notes and the faster notes creates a beautiful tension. Revealing the balance between these two ideas comes down to finding a correct tempo.
As we come to the end of Lent and winter, when our worship rituals invited us to reflect and meditate deeply, and the tempo of our inner lives was somewhat slowed, I hope this Prelude gives you a chance to take a deep breath. Soon we will be swept away by Easter joy and the delights of spring, and our hearts might beat at a faster tempo.
Faithfully yours,
Mary Therese
