ABSTRACT
Bach’s earliest keyboard pieces are oft en charming, sometimes earnestly rhetorical, and occasionally quite inventive. But they have remained little known to all but specialists, and they are quite diff erent from the later pieces that are more commonly studied. None of the early suites, sonatas, preludes, fugues, and other works were ever gathered into an ordered collection like the WTC or the Clavierübung. Some of the pieces allude to stylistic traditions that are unfamiliar even to many harpsichordists. One seeks in vain in most of them for unmistakable hints of Bach’s later style, although one does sense a certain audacity, as in the chromatic modulations of the G-Minor Ouverture. Nevertheless, these pieces share favorite motivic ideas, characteristic cadential formulas, and other small touches with Bach’s early work in other genres, making it clear that we are dealing with a distinct musical personality, if not the familiar Bach of Cöthen or Leipzig. One surprising side of this personality is a modestly elegiac character that contrasts with the exuberance of the composer’s early organ music; one hears this especially in the allemandes and courantes, which tend toward minor keys even when the tonic is major.
