Johann Sebastian Bach is to the world of classical music much as Leonardo da Vinci is to the world of art -- both men reign as giants at the pinnacle of their respective fields. Bach, as did da Vinci, engaged his artistic impulses with a sense of mathematical precision, keen observation and the experimental brio of a scientist.
The Hungarian-born and educated Andras Schiff, one of the foremost pianists of our time, is currently in San Francisco to pay due homage, bringing his own scholarship and technical prowess to a groundbreaking project on Bach. Schiff will lecture about and perform a series of concerts dealing with Bach's landmark "Well-Tempered Clavier," Books I and II, as well as a number of his other keyboard masterworks on a tour that continues tonight through Saturday at Davies Symphony Hall and will culminate at New York's Carnegie Hall on Nov. 5, 2013, during which he will perform Bach's Partitas and his "Goldberg Variations."
Certainly among Western classical music's most influential works is Bach's "Das Wohltemperierte Klavier" (The Well-Tempered Clavier), in which he created a series of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys (48 in all). He finished Book I in 1722 and Book II in 1742. Each book contains 24 pairs of preludes and fugues, beginning with C major and C minor, followed by C-sharp major and C-sharp minor and on through all the chromatic scales. On the title pages, he quite modestly inscribed that this task was done "for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study."
The reason these works were so important in the development of Western classical music was that they illustrated that the "well-tempered tuning" system that replaced the "mean tuning" system prevalent in Bach's early days allowed each of the pieces to sound in tune. Each keyboard note was "tempered" (adjusted) so that no matter which key the piece was in, it would always sound in tune. This was not the case in the mean tuning system, especially among pieces involving many "accidentals" (notes not within the scale's relationship pattern). And an added note: Some modern organs, such as the one at Stanford University's Memorial Church, have the capacity to be converted to mean tuning -- and when that is done, a piece can sound "out of tune" to ears accustomed to the well-tempered system. With his "Well-Tempered Clavier," Bach proved the effectiveness of tempered tuning and changed music history.
According to Schiff, who has performed and recorded the music of a wide range of composers, "Bach stands at the core of my music making." The pianist is deploying his sense of humor as well as his depth of knowledge and technical expertise to his Bach project and bringing the revered composer solidly into the 21st century in the process.
He has been tweeting daily since Sept. 14 for his "Well-Tweeted Clavier" initiative, using a color-coded Web posting and an accompanying performance video that illustrates something about each of the 48 pieces in Bach's monumental work. On Monday, he was on to the second volume, and here is what he had to say:
"Today we begin Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier, so we're back to C major and the color white.
"Why the division of two books? The Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I) was written in 1722 in part as an educational tool for his eldest son. It was also used to curry favor with a nobleman who had a job opening Bach wanted.
"Twenty years later, Bach was writing new exercises for his younger sons Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian -- no musical hand-me-downs in this family! But assembling the set wasn't quite as deliberate as Book I.
"The initial published title in 1742 was just '24 Preludes and Fugues'; only later was it merged into The Well-Tempered Clavier as Book II. They're longer and considered to be more complex. As you listen over the next 24 days, decide for yourself."
Schiff gave the first of his San Francisco concerts, co-presented by the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Performances, Sunday in Davies Hall and followed up with a lecture/performance on "Bach and His Legacy" on Tuesday. But you can still catch him conducting and performing with the Symphony Bach's Keyboard Concerti Nos. 1 and 2, along with Mendelssohn's "Fingal's Cave" Overture and Symphony No. 4, the "Italian," at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday and at 6:30 p.m. Friday in Davies Hall.
Schiff, who is at the beginning of a two-year residency with the Symphony, will return at 2 p.m. Oct. 21 to perform Book II of "The Well-Tempered Clavier." Two performances in April, 2013, will feature Bach's English and French suites.
Tickets: $15 to $150; 415-864-6000; or www.sfsymphony.org.
Contact Cheryl North at firstname.lastname@example.org.