D. Ledbetter Bach's Well-tempered Clavier

D. Ledbetter Bach’s Well‐tempered Clavier
The following are the most important corrections to the 2002 printing. The
book was reprinted in 2006 with a few of these corrections.
Errata
David Ledbetter
April 2008
p.7 para.3: a copy of Kirchhoffʹs l’A.B.C musical has surfaced in Russia.
The title is l’A.B.C Musical / Contenant / des Preludes et des Fugues de
tous les Tons / POUR L’ORGUE, OU LE CLAVECIN / fort utile aux
disciples pour aprendre accompagner de la Basse Continue / et faire des
Preludes et des Fugues....
The hitherto known German version of the title stems from Marpurg,
who mistakenly suggests that the collection goes through 24 keys. It
has only 16, and the exercises are on a par with Mattheson’s Mittel‐
Classe. It does not contain BWV 907 or 908. A facsimile and edition by
Anatoly Milka is published by Musikverlag ‘Compozitor’, St.
Petersburg, 2004. For further details, see A.P. Milka, ‘Zur Herkunft
einiger Fugen in der Berliner Bach‐Handschrift P 296’, Bach‐Jahrbuch
lxxxix (2003), 251–258.
p.9 para.3 lines 2–3 < durch alle Tone >
p.23 line 14 < as Thomas‐Organist in >
p.29 para.3 lines 2‐3 < to c��, and >

p.35 Chapter Two. This chapter was written before Andreas Sparschuh, of
the Technische Universität Darmstadt, proposed an interpretation of
Bach’s temperament based on the decorative patterns at the top of the
1722 title‐page (paper read at the Deutsche Mathematiker
Vereinigung Jahrestagung, Mainz 1999, for which he earned the
Golden Tuning Fork of the German Tuners’ Association). A different
interpretation was subsequently proposed by Bradley Lehman (Early
Music 2/2005 and 5/2005, with replies 8/2005). Two responses to
Lehman’s conjecture were published in Early Music 11/2006, by Mark
Lindley and Ibo Ortgies, and by John O’Donnell. While all these
conjectures are of great interest, I see no reason to revise my
fundamental points: 1) that it is most unlikely that Bach stayed with a
single method of tuning throughout his career, and 2) that as a
practical musician he is unlikely to have adhered rigidly to a
mathematically formulated tuning at any stage of his career. The story
of Johann Nikolaus Bach’s competition with Neidhardt (and his
monochord, see pp.39–40) would seem to corroborate this.
p.41 fn 31: Kerala Snyder has recently withdrawn her proposal that the
Marienkirche organs were tuned to Werckmeister III in 1683 (Dietrich
Buxtehude, Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 2/2007,
pp.84–6).
p.44 para.1 line 4 < on g�� ; the >
p.80 para.1 line 8 < delivery or pronunciatio/executio >
p.90 para.1 table: numbers should be aligned to show correspondences:
p.91 para.1 table: ditto
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p.96 para.1 line 8 < Bach also begins >
p.127 para 3 line 5 < in a way >
p.164 para.1 line 7 < perforatum >

p.179 para.1 second last line < top cʺʹ� >
para 2 line 11 < �.�� � � � � >
p.191 para.2 line 2 < to the � time signature >
p.200 para.3 line 12 < with 4� on the upper >
p.210 The discussion of the G sharp minor fugue needs some further nuance
in that an ordinary tonal answer for Kerll’s subject would deform it to
d c� f� e f� g f� e� d. Bach’s modulating version very neatly makes a
circle of subject and answer, beginning and ending on G, truly a
connoisseur’s engagement with Kerll’s Fuga.
p.211 Ex.7.25 b.5 in b) version, tenor should be e�
p.212 para.1 line 3 < modal subject >
p.256 para.2 line 9 < � and �� values >
p.270 para 1 line 8 < that they cannot >
p.292 para.3 line 5 < 1974 p.4 > delete c
p.303 para 1 line 6 < 10th at b.69 >
p.318 para.3 last line, numbers should end < 1 2 :| > colon before line
p.346 note 21: The Heinitz unfretted clavichord of 1716 has now been
discussed in much more detail by Richard Troeger, ‘Bach, Heinitz,
Specken, and the early bundfrei clavichord’, Music and its Questions:
Essays in Honor of Peter Williams (ed. T. Donahue) pp.143–66
(Richmond VA: OHS Press, 2007).
p.347 top line < FF–dʺʹ >
line 3 < C/E–cʺʹ >

p.353 note 6 line 1 < Parnassus was published by 1736 at the latest, but >
end the fn at < earlier. > delete ‘than their publication date’.
[should work out line‐wise with addition to line 1]
p.355 note 30 line 3 < fugues in 16 keys: L’ABC musical (Amsterdam c.1734);
ed. A.Milka (St Petersburg: Musikverlag ‘Kompositor’, 2004). >
p.356 note.5 line 11 < p.31) and Bernhard (c.1649); it chimes >
p.374 Fischer, line 4 < 1736 >
p.386 Franklin line 4 < (1989b) > b
Hermlink line 2 < Preußischer > r
p.395 Stinson line 7 < 1995b > + b
p.405 Fischer, J.C.F. second last line < (n.d.) > not 1738
In July 2003 I received a letter from the late Madame Denise Restout, who was
Wanda Landowska’s personal assistant and published a translation of
Landowska’s writings on music in 1965. She has put me right about some of
Landowska’s views: those of us not privileged to have known Madame
Landowska have to rely on written records, which can be misleading. You
could say the same of Bach.
‘One point in particular I would like to refute and rectify. In Chapter One
Clavier you wrote: “Wanda Landowska added (1907–1911) an element of her
own hysterical prejudice against the clavichord…” and later: “her dislike of
the clavichord was lifelong and passed on to generations of students”. This is
TOTALLY FALSE. Landowska loved the clavichord for what it was and what
it could do – she owned two beautiful ancient ones, and in 1942 Challis built a
new one for her (on which I still teach today!). She played many types of
clavichords…. What Landowska objected to was playing on that instrument
music that obviously was not meant for it. The clavichord’s tonal limitations
do not allow important contrasts of sonority, nor of timbre coloration, as does
the harpsichord, and which are needed for many of J.S.Bach’s works….
You also quote her as having said of Kirkpatrick’s recording of The Well‐
tempered Clavier on the clavichord: “it is a pity that he could not afford a

harpsichord!” She certainly never said that – the type of hostile gossip I mean.
Kirkpatrick, who was her student for a few years, openly had a great dislike
for Landowska’s personality. Yet he had to admit in his memoires how great
she was and how much he had learned from her.’