Twenty four Preludes for Piano (62 mins)
‘to Charles Matthews’

The Well-Tempered Pianist, 24 Preludes for piano, are a study in tonality. They use a scale of extended tonality, the whole-tone scale with the addition of the perfect fourth, in the same way that J.S.Bach used the diatonic scale for the 48 Preludes and Fugues that make up Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, namely to establish the tonal order of the major and minor key system.   By formalising a new scale in this way, in both genders, major and minor, and basing it on each of the twelve semitones making up the octave, it will be tested and proved, in theory and in practice, to discover whether it too has the power to establish a fresh tonal order on the face of the music; whether, indeed, it is the origin of colour and variety in the harmony, of movement and structure in the melody, and of sequence in the rhythm. The Well-Tempered Pianist is dedicated  to the proposition that, if music is the tonal art, tonality is the dynamic source of music’s movement.

The score for this work is available; and a full performance is available for download and on CD.

First Performance 21 October 2009 London (Barbican Library) by Charles Matthews

Score ISMN 979 0 7080 4596 0

Listen to a sample (6′ 29″)

Charles Matthews (Piano)

V D major Vivace 1’ 01”
XXII A sharp minor Largo elegiaco 3’ 47”
VIII D sharp minor Allegro moderato 1’ 41”

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