ABSTRACT
Johann Sebastian Bach’s reputation as one of the supreme figures of Western musical history rests primarily on the legacy of his keyboard music. Whereas the composer’s church music and ensemble compositions, including such masterpieces as the Mass in B minor, the Passions, and the Brandenburg Concertos, fell virtually into oblivion after his death, the two-and three-part inventions, the harpsichord suites, the chorale settings, and the preludes and fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier have been the objects of unbroken study, veneration, and emulation by generations of musicians-amateur and professional-from Bach’s day to the present.
