Twelve Little Preludes
Twelve Little Preludes (French: Douze petits Préludes; German: Zwölf kleine Praeludien), BWV 924–930, 939–942 and 999, is a 19th-century compilation of short pieces, collected from various 18th-century manuscripts written by Johann Sebastian Bach and others. Notwithstanding their diverse origin and characteristics they were published as a set of twelve keyboard preludes by Bach, in, amongst others, the 36th volume of the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe (BGA).
Several collections of short keyboard preludes by Bach were published for didactic purposes from the 19th century. In the 20th century Ferruccio Busoni combined the Twelve Little Preludes with the Six Little Preludes, BWV 933–938 into a set of 18 little preludes.
History
Collections of short keyboard preludes by Johann Sebastian Bach had been around since the 18th century. For instance the Six Little Preludes, BWV 933–938 are found as a group of six in manuscripts before they were published as a set in the 19th century. The Twelve Little Preludes are however a 19th-century compilation extracted from two manuscripts, the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and the composite manuscript P 804 (known as the Kellner Collection) of the Berlin State Library, both with dozens of works by various composers and written down by multiple known and unknown scribes.
The date of origin of the pieces in the Twelve Little Preludes collection is presumed to be around the first half of the 1720s, that is the period of Bach's later years in Köthen and his first years in Leipzig, where he had become Thomaskantor in 1723. In January 1720 he had started the Klavierbüchlein (keyboard-booklet) for his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann, who was nine years old at that time.
Pieces from Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Klavierbüchlein
Seven of the Twelve Little Preludes were adopted from Wilhelm Friedemann's Klavierbüchlein:
BWV 924 (No. 2 in the Klavierbüchlein) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 1
BWV 925 (No. 27 in the Klavierbüchlein) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 4
BWV 926 (No. 4 in the Klavierbüchlein) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 5
BWV 927 (No. 8 in the Klavierbüchlein) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 8
BWV 928 (No. 10 in the Klavierbüchlein) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 9
BWV 929 (No. 48e in the Klavierbüchlein) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 10
BWV 930 (No. 9 in the Klavierbüchlein) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 11
BWV 925 may have been composed by Wilhelm Friedemann (it has the number BR A 45 in the catalogue of the compositions of that composer). BWV 929 is not actually a Prelude: it is a Trio composed for a Minuet by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. All other pieces extracted from W. F. Bach's Klavierbüchlein are titled "Praeambulum" or "Praeludium" (both Latin expressions translated as "Prelude") in the manuscript. Together with BWV 931 and 932 (Nos. 29 and 28 in the Klavierbüchlein) this set is also known as Neun kleine Präludien aus dem Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (nine little preludes from the keyboard-booklet for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach).
Other preludes contained in the Klavierbüchlein:
No. 3: chorale prelude Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV 691 (also included in the Kirnberger Collection of chorale preludes, and as No. 11 in the 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach)
No. 5: chorale prelude Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 753 (unfinished)
Nos. 14–24: Praeludium 1, BWV 846a, 847/1, 851/1, 850/1, 855a/1, 854/1, 856/1, 848/1, 849/1, 853/1 and 857/1. These are (early versions of) preludes that were adopted, in a different sequence, in the Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, Nos. 1–6 and 8–12.
No. 26: "Praeludium ex c♮", BWV 924a (variant version of BWV 924)
Nos. 32–46: Praeambulum 1–15, BWV 772, 775, 778, 779, 781, 784, 786, 785, 783, 782, 780, 777, 776, 774 and 773. These are better known, in a different sequence, as the fifteen Two-part Inventions
The first pieces entered in the Klavierbüchlein, including BWV 924 and 926, would have originated around 1720 (although at least some of it was apparently based on earlier work). Pieces were added to the manuscript until 1726.
From the Five Little Preludes
In the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) Nos. 939–943 appear under the title "Fünf kleine Präludien" (Five Little Preludes). P 804, Fascicle 53, a manuscript by an unknown scribe, is the only 18th-century source for BWV 939–942. While this source does not mention a composer for these pieces, the attribution to Bach has been doubted.
BWV 939 (Five Little Preludes No. 1) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 2
BWV 940 (Five Little Preludes No. 2) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 6
BWV 941 (Five Little Preludes No. 3) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 7
BWV 942 (Five Little Preludes No. 4) → Twelve Little Preludes No. 12
The P 804 manuscript contained these four pieces in a different order, also containing a copy of BWV 927 (which is the only direct link to J. S. Bach, and to the preludes contained in the Klavierbüchlein, for Fascicle 53): BWV 940, 941, 939, 927, 942.
1726–27 is the assumed date of origin of BWV 939–942. BWV 943 was printed after the Six Little Preludes in the BGA edition, so was never a part of the Twelve Little Preludes collection.
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