Unlike, say, Chopin's piano pieces, J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is not
a cycle written to exploit the capabilities of 'a' particular instrument.
Instead these pieces are a mind-bogging record of sheer human ingenuity:
Striking as they may be, individually, taken as a whole they embody an
unparalleled record of never-ending novelties... If not an even more striking
novelty than the one before it, at the very least every piece makes you
scratch your head as to how Bach could have yet come up with one more such
wondrous a curiosity--Not merely as in the complete conception of each piece
but also in the case of almost every musical phrase after musical phrase
throughout all the works in the assembly. And still there are pieces here
which are beatiful beyond telling.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Copyright (P) 1997 Mr. S. D. Rodrian

Although any transcription of Bach's music is by definition in the Public
Domain, these 'interpretations' ARE copyrighted: This music may not be
reproduced by any means without the expressed written permission of S. D.
Rodrian... with the one exception that these Midi files (either in the ZIPped
"JSB_WTC.ZIP" file or individually) may be freely distributed through the WWW
as long as they are not modified in any way: You can always use Bach's notes,
of course, but NOT my 'performance' of them.

NOTE that these files have a 'clean' tempo map (so they can be played
extremely accurately by almost any midi player, regardless of its quality).
Therefore my 'performance' is embodied in the notes themselves.

J.S.Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book ONE: 24 Preludes & Fugues.

file ------------------- work  

R-PF01.MID  Prelude and Fugue in C BWV 846  
R-PF02.MID  Prelude and Fugue in cm BWV 847  
R-PF03.MID  Prelude and Fugue in C# BWV 848  
R-PF04.MID  Prelude and Fugue in c#m BWV 849  
R-PF05.MID  Prelude and Fugue in D BWV 850  
R-PF06.MID  Prelude and Fugue in dm BWV 851  
R-PF07.MID  Prelude and Fugue in Eb BWV 852  
R-PF08.MID  Prelude and Fugue in d#m BWV 853  
R-PF09.MID  Prelude and Fugue in E BWV 854  
R-PF10.MID  Prelude and Fugue in em BWV 855  
R-PF11.MID  Prelude and Fugue in F BWV 856  
R-PF12.MID  Prelude and Fugue in fm BWV 857  
R-PF13.MID  Prelude and Fugue in F# BWV 858  
R-PF14.MID  Prelude and Fugue in f#m BWV 859  
R-PF15.MID  Prelude and Fugue in G BWV 860  
R-PF16.MID  Prelude and Fugue in gm BWV 861  
R-PF17.MID  Prelude and Fugue in Ab BWV 862  
R-PF18.MID  Prelude and Fugue in g#m BWV 863  
R-PF19.MID  Prelude and Fugue in A BWV 864  
R-PF20.MID  Prelude and Fugue in am BWV 865  
R-PF21.MID  Prelude and Fugue in Bb BWV 866  
R-PF22.MID  Prelude and Fugue in bbm BWV 867  
R-PF23.MID  Prelude and Fugue in B BWV 868  
R-PF24.MID  Prelude and Fugue in bm BWV 869

J.S.Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book TWO: 24 Preludes & Fugues.

file ------------------- work 

R-PFII01.MID  Prelude and Fugue in C BWV 870  
R-PFII02.MID  Prelude and Fugue in cm BWV 871  
R-PFII03.MID  Prelude and Fugue in C# BWV 872  
R-PFII04.MID  Prelude and Fugue in c#m BWV 873  
R-PFII05.MID  Prelude and Fugue in D BWV 874  
R-PFII06.MID  Prelude and Fugue in dm BWV 875  
R-PFII07.MID  Prelude and Fugue in Eb BWV 876  
R-PFII08.MID  Prelude and Fugue in d#m BWV 877  
R-PFII09.MID  Prelude and Fugue in E BWV 878  
R-PFII10.MID  Prelude and Fugue in em BWV 879  
R-PFII11.MID  Prelude and Fugue in F BWV 880  
R-PFII12.MID  Prelude and Fugue in fm BWV 881  
R-PFII13.MID  Prelude and Fugue in F# BWV 882  
R-PFII14.MID  Prelude and Fugue in f#m BWV 883  
R-PFII15.MID  Prelude and Fugue in G BWV 884  
R-PFII16.MID  Prelude and Fugue in gm BWV 885  
R-PFII17.MID  Prelude and Fugue in Ab BWV 886  
R-PFII18.MID  Prelude and Fugue in g#m BWV 887  
R-PFII19.MID  Prelude and Fugue in A BWV 888  
R-PFII20.MID  Prelude and Fugue in am BWV 889  
R-PFII21.MID  Prelude and Fugue in Bb BWV 890  
R-PFII22.MID  Prelude and Fugue in bbm BWV 891  
R-PFII23.MID  Prelude and Fugue in B BWV 892  
R-PFII24.MID  Prelude and Fugue in bm BWV 893

I am making these files available now (rather than later) because I have
reached a point of diminishing returns in their editing. That is,
theoretically the pieces can always come closer still to the way I think they
ought to be interpreted --but not by so much that it justifies my spending
all that much more effort on it. Although it was fun while it lasted, it's
time to work on something else now.

As a point of departure you must understand that I use the SoundBlaster AWE32
card (on a P.120 PC): This card comes with digitally sampled instruments. [I
use Master Tracks Pro.]

On other software (provided the hardware is capable of digitally-sampled
instruments), if you don't know how to avoid the FM banks of
computer-generated instruments try the Midi Mapper (which might have been
properly programmed with your card's wave table instruments).

These files are set to a minimum 'stereo' pan. The following set of
'controls' instructions are for the AWE32 card, but users of other cards may
deduce the effect I'm after from them...

for the CREATIVE MIXER: set the Treble, Bass, and MIDI Volumes to their
loudest possible settings. Then set MAIN VOLUME to play at your own paticular
comfort level. NOTE that the note 'velocities' in these files are set to the
loudest possible setting (whenever and wherever possible).  Set all
right/left 'balances' as close as possible to the center.

for the AWE32 CONTROL PANEL: Use the Qsound (not Reverb and Chorus).

for the BOB (break-out box): Make sure all the controller 'boxes' (under the
M's) are unchecked... Save this setting to the default.bob file if need be:
When any box is 'checked' it interferes with the controller information sent
by the midi files for proper playback.

All               Copyright (P) 1997        Mr. S. D. Rodrian
                                                626 Lalor Street
                                                Trenton NJ 08611
                           SDRodrian@aol.com or rodrian@geocities.com
     You can visit me at http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/3214
 