WTC I/5 in D major Prelude

from Siglind Bruhn

J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier
In-depth Analysis and Interpretation

I/5.1.1 The prelude-type

Underneath its virtuoso surface structure, the D-Major Prelude is strongly determined by harmonic processes. Its
sixteenth-note pattern does not develop motives; any recurrences are transpositions which occur exclusively in
connection with analogies in the harmonic development.

I/5.1.2 The design of the prelude

The first cadence ends on the downbeat of bar 3, after a harmonic progression from the tonic (bar 1) via ii 7 and
V7 (bar 2) back to the tonic. This cadential close comes with a very subtle structural break.

The harmonic progression which follows brings a modulation to the dominant key. During this modulation, the
right-hand ornamental line seems to resemble that of the first cadence (compare bars 3 and 4 with bar 2), and its
end is an exact transposition of the previous ending bar (compare bar 5 with bar 2). As before, this cadential close
again signifies the completion of a structural unit.

There are altogether eight closed harmonic progressions (note that each phrase begins with the second sixteenth-
note in the right-hand pattern and ends on a downbeat):

bars 1 3d DD bars 14 20d DG

bars 3 6d DA bars 20 22d GG

bars 6 12d AE bars 22 25d GD

bars 12 14d ED bars 25 35 DD

It seems worth mentioning at this point that this prelude, like several others from the first volume of the WTC,
derives from a much shorter model in Bach's Note Book for Wilhelm Friedemann. The original version contains
twenty-two bars. Of these, bars 1-17 appear unchanged in bars 1-17 here, and bars 19/20 from the original can
be found in bars 27/28 of the WTC version. An interesting question is therefore whether the basic binary form of
the Wilhelm Friedemann version has only been extended, or whether the addition of bars 18-26 changes the
structure.

No portion of the D major prelude is repeated literally. There is, however, a striking five-bar symmetry, in that the
beginning of the piece is restated in the middle of the prelude in the subdominant key (compare bars 1-6d with
bars 20-25d). The modulation from tonic to dominant which takes place in the second phrase thus serves, in its
transposition launched from the subdominant, to return to the home key in the manner of a typical Baroque
recapitulation.

Besides this there are several further analogies:

- The three-bar modulation in the second section recurs as a "bracket" in the subsequent portion: compare
bars 3-5d with bars 6/7 and 10-11d.

- The beginning of this modulation then reappears once more at the outset of the ensuing section: compare
bars 3-4m with bars 14-15m.