The Second Book of the '48'
(BWV 870-893)

MIDI files edited and sequenced by Yo Tomita

Prelude No.4 in C# minor (14 December 1997)
 
Background
Recent Improvements
About Use and Links
Variants [new]

Background

In January 1995, a friend of mine, Professor Michael Beddow of Dept. of German, Leeds University, gave me a disk containing the first 12 preludes and fugues of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. They were sequenced by an anonymous enthusiast and deposited in the public domain on 17 August 1993. Ever since I am looking for this person to thank his or her effort, but so far in vain. In common with many of those freely available in internet, however, these MIDI files contained numerous errors, and subsequently I have decided to correct them. So the result is the file "wtc2-pt1.zip" [click here to download the file].

I have also added the remaining 12 to complete the set, as I have already edited the music with Finale for my research project. The new MIDI files, i.e. #13-24, were fairly straight MIDI output from Finale, but then I have added a gradual tempo change with Cakewalk for Windows. You can of course read these MIDI files to your score editors to print out the music. The file is called "wtc2-pt2.zip" and you can also download it [click here]. All these files reflect my editorial decisions at the time; they are not based on a printed edition by other musicologists.

To make these files audible from a MIDI output device, I have adjusted tempi to a more acceptable value. In most cases, I have set Harpsichord sound. They were also deposited in other internet archives (which has the date stamp of 07 February 1995), among which one of the the most well-known must be Piet van Oostrum's MIDI archive (ftp.cs.ruu.nl) where I have uploaded the files.

Recent Improvements

As a matter of experiment, I have edited all the files in June 1996, mainly adding more elaborate articulations, ornamentations and tempo changes to all the fugues. As These files are much more enjoyable to listen to. Jeremy Bem used these files in his Glimmer, an amazing 3D game for Macintosh.

More recently, I have decided to revise them one by one, mainly improving ornamentations, articulations and registration. Those already modified are shown in bold in the following table, while the most recently updated files are in blink. So watch out this space!

Most recent MIDI files

BWV  Preludes  Fugues  BWV  Preludes  Fugues 
870  Prelude #1 Fugue #1 882  Prelude #13  Fugue #13 
871  Prelude #2  Fugue #2  883  Prelude #14  Fugue #14 
872  Prelude #3  Fugue #3  884  Prelude #15  Fugue #15 
873  Prelude #4  Fugue #4  885  Prelude #16  Fugue #16 
874  Prelude #5  Fugue #5  886  Prelude #17  Fugue #17 
875  Prelude #6  Fugue #6  887  Prelude #18  Fugue #18 
876  Prelude #7  Fugue #7  888  Prelude #19  Fugue #19 
877  Prelude #8  Fugue #8  889  Prelude #20  Fugue #20 
878  Prelude #9  Fugue #9  890  Prelude #21  Fugue #21 
879  Prelude #10  Fugue #10  891  Prelude #22  Fugue #22 
880  Prelude #11  Fugue #11  892  Prelude #23  Fugue #23 
881  Prelude #12  Fugue #12  893  Prelude #24  Fugue #24 
Or you can get all in a zip file: wtc2midi.zip (14.xii.97) 

About Use and Links

You are most welcome to download and listen to these files for your own enjoyment. You are also free to create links to all my web pages.

But when you intend to use my files beyond this (e.g. using in your own web pages or public performance), please let me know first. Under normal circumstances, I will, of course, grant your use of my MIDI files. These files are all copyrighted, as it derived from my book, which is published in 1995.

Last modified: 12 March 1998
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