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The Fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier provides interactive multimedia analyses of Book I (and portions of Book II) of the WTC by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Well-Tempered Clavier, is one of the world's great intellectual treasures. Each of its two volumes contains a prelude and fugue in every major and minor key of the chromatic scale. Book I, which was completed in 1722, was the first cycle of compositions in this conception. Book I begins with a prelude in C Major, followed by a fugue in the same key. These are followed by a prelude and fugue in C minor, C#/Db major/minor, D major/minor, etc. Each pair moves up the chromatic scale until every key has been represented. In Book II, which was completed in 1744, Bach effects another complete transversal of the chromatic cycle. One of Bach's primary purposes in composing these cycles was to demonstrate the feasibility of the "well tempered" tuning system that would allow for composition in every key.