There is a long tradition in classical music of writing music in sets of pieces that cover all the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. These sets typically consist of 24 pieces, one for each of the major and minorkeys (sets that comprise all the enharmonic variants include 30 pieces).
The bulk of works of this type have been written for piano solo, but there also exist sets for piano 4-hands; two pianos; organ; guitar; two guitars; flute; recorder; oboe; violin solo; violin and piano; cello solo; cello and piano; voice and piano; and string quartet. There are examples of attempts to write full sets that, for one reason or another, were never completed (Josef Rheinberger's organ sonatas, Dmitri Shostakovich's string quartets, César Franck's L'Organiste).
In 1897–1905, Sergei Lyapunov wrote his 12 Études d'exécution transcendante, Op. 11, which cover the remaining keys, in sharps, and are dedicated to Liszt's memory.[1]
Alexander Scriabin: 24 Preludes, Op. 11 (1893–95) – Scriabin wrote a total of 90 preludes for piano (50 in major keys, 31 in minor keys, and 9 in indeterminate keys). These contained only one complete set of preludes in all 24 major and minor keys.
Paul Hindemith: Ludus Tonalis (1942) – 12 fugues and 12 interludes covering all twelve keys, where the major/minor distinction does not apply, book-ended by a praeludium and a postludium.
Composer Niels Viggo Bentzon wrote 14 complete sets of 24 Preludes and Fugues.
A number of composers have written multiple sets of works covering all the keys of the scale.
14 sets: Niels Viggo Bentzon (1919–2000) wrote 14 complete sets of 24 Preludes and Fugues, a total of 336 pieces in this genre alone.[2][3] The contemporary composer Roberto Novegno (b. 1981) has also written 14 complete sets of preludes so far, each using a different sequence of keys.[4]
other: Franz Liszt wrote only one set of his own, but he also transcribed for piano solo a set for violin and piano by Ferdinand David. Josef Rheinberger wrote one full set, and died before completing a further set of organ sonatas.
Full details are shown in the tables below.
Variants
Single pieces that modulate through many keys
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote 2 Preludes through all 12 Major Keys, Op. 39 for piano (1789).[a] These two preludes each progressively traverse the 12 major keys. In Prelude No. 1, each key occupies from 2 to 26 bars. The keys of C# and D♭, which are enharmonically equivalent, are both represented. C major both opens and closes the set. In Prelude No. 2, the cycle of keys appears twice; in the first cycle, the number of bars per key ranges from 1 to 8; in the second half, after C every new key signature lasts for only one bar; the cycle concludes with 15 bars of C major. There is no evidence that Beethoven intended to write similar sets in the 12 minor keys.
The rondo theme of Darius Milhaud's Le bœuf sur le toit is played fifteen times in all 12 major keys (twice in A major and three times in the tonic, C major). It also passes through every minor key except E minor and B minor.
Charles-Valentin Alkan composed Petits préludes sur les huit gammes du plain-chant, for organ (1859, no opus number), a sequence of eight organ preludes covering each of the church modes.
Not all sets of 24 pieces belong in this category. For example, there was no intention in Niccolò Paganini's 24 Caprices for solo violin, Claude Debussy's 24 Préludes for piano, or Pavel Zemek Novak's 24Preludes and Fugues for piano[6] to cover all the keys. (Paganini may not have been aware of Pierre Rode's 24 Caprices for violin, which did span the 24 keys and were written almost at the same time as Paganini's.)
Chopin's 24 Études, Opp. 10 & 25 might have originally been planned to be in all 24 keys. In fact, apart from Nos. 7 and 8, the first series (Op. 10) is made of couples of études in a major key and its relative minor (the major key either preceding the minor key or following it) with none of the tonalities occurring twice (except for C major, which appears in No. 1 and then in the only couple which is not major-minor, i.e. Nos. 7 and 8). But in the second series (Op. 25) this tonal scheme gets more and more loose. It is still possible to see connections on a tonal basis between the couples of études in Op. 25, but they are not based on one principle (e.g. Nos. 3 and 4 in F major – A minor, two tonalities which Chopin likes to put together very often, as in his second Ballade). One might suppose that Chopin considered writing the études in all the tonalities but eventually came to the conclusion that it wasn't practical, and turned back to it later, for the 24 Preludes, Op. 28. The fact that the first étude of Op. 10 is made of arpeggios in C major draws a connection to Bach's first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier and makes it clear that Chopin had the tradition on his mind.[original research?]
Keys
There are 12 notes in the octave, and each of them can be the tonic of one major and one minor key. This gives 24 possible keys, but each note can be represented by several enharmonic note names (note names which designate the same actual note in the 12 note octave such as G# and A♭) and so each key can be represented by several enharmonic key names (e.g. G# minor and A♭ minor).
In practice, the choice of key name is restricted to the 30 keys whose signatures have no double flats or double sharps. (Such key signatures are used for so-called theoretical keys which are almost never encountered outside music-theoretical exercises.)[b] Keys with 6 flats and 6 sharps,[c] with 7 flats and 5 sharps[d] and with 5 flats and 7 sharps[e] are enharmonic to one another. Composers will, in most (though not all) cases, choose only one key from each enharmonic pair. But there are also cases of sets covering all 30 keys, which, in other words, include all enharmonic variants.
The table below outlines the choices made in the various collections listed here. The keys are in the order that J.S. Bach used.
Most composers of sets of 24 pieces have preferred E♭ minor over D# minor. Bach, Lyapunov and Ponce are among the few who have used D#. The first use of D# minor was in Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, in Fugue No. 8 from Book 1 (although its corresponding Prelude was written in E♭ minor), while D# minor was used for both the Prelude and the Fugue in Book 2. Another is in Lyapunov's Étude d'execution transcendante No. 2, subtitled "Ronde des Fantômes"
No well-known sets of 24 pieces include A# minor. Two examples are from Bartolomeo Campagnoli's 30 Preludes for violin, and Christian Heinrich Rinck's 30 Préludes from his Practical Organ School, Op. 55, published before 1821.
No well-known sets of 24 pieces include C♭ major. While this key is sometimes used in compositions (particularly for the harp, which is especially suited to this key), it is not generally considered one of the standard keys because it is enharmonically equivalent to B major. With its tonic note being a white key on the piano, and its parallel minor (relative to E♭♭ major) having 10 flats, its usage is generally undesirable. C♭ major does appear in Campagnoli's and Rinck's works mentioned below, along with A# minor, but those collections include both members of all six enharmonically equivalent pairs.[8]
Other composers derived their own schemas based on certain logical rationales. For example, in Alkan’s 25 Preludes, Op. 31, the sequence of keys moves alternately up a fourth and down a third: the major keys take the odd-numbered positions in the cycle, proceeding chromatically upwards from C to C again, and each major key is followed by its subdominant minor.
Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, two complete sets of 24 Preludes and Fugues written for keyboard in 1722 and 1742, and often known as "the 48", is generally considered the greatest example of music traversing all 24 keys. Many later composers clearly modelled their sets on Bach's, including the order of the keys.
It was long believed that Bach had taken the title The Well-Tempered Clavier from a similarly named set of 24 Preludes and Fugues in all the keys, for which a manuscript dated 1689 was found in the library of the Brussels Conservatoire. It was later shown that this was the work of a composer who was not even born by 1689: Bernhard Christian Weber (1712–1758). In fact, the work was written in 1745–50 in imitation of Bach's example.[9][10] While Bach can safely claim the title The Well-Tempered Clavier, he was not the earliest composer to write sets of pieces in all the keys:
As early as 1567, Giacomo Gorzanis[it; de; ca; fr] (c.1520–c.1577) composed twelve settings of the passamezzo antico and passamezzo moderno, each followed by a saltarello, in all 24 keys.[11][12] In 1584, Vincenzo Galilei, father of Galileo Galilei, wrote a Codex of pieces illustrating the use of all 24 major and minor keys.[citation needed]
In 1702, Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer wrote a cycle of 20 organ pieces all in different keys in his Ariadne musica. These included E major as well as E in Phrygian mode and again in Dorian mode, but not E minor per se. They also excluded C#/D♭ major, D#/E♭ minor, F#/G♭ major, G#/A♭ minor, and A#/B♭ minor. Bach modelled the sequence of his 48 Preludes on Fischer's example.[3]
These preludes span C to G, major and minor. Kittel evidently intended to write 24 preludes, in honour of his teacher J.S. Bach, but the work was left unfinished.[21]
These were appended to the 5th edition of Clementi's Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Piano Forte.[25] There is one prelude and exercise for each key, and the set concludes with a "Grande Exercice" that progressively modulates through all the keys but in a somewhat different order than the foregoing; further, the "Grande Exercice" uses G♭ major where the individual pieces use F# major.[26]
The first such collection for keyboard in which the preludes are neither paired with fugues nor serve as an introduction to a suite.[28] Some preludes are as short as five bars and unsuitable for concert performance.[29]
The 30 Préludes for organ are part of Rinck's Practical Organ School, Op. 55, a collection of 117 pieces. They contain both members of all six enharmonically-equivalent key pairs, including the extremely rare keys of A# minor and C♭ major[8]
The 24 Preludes were published in 1835[37] and dedicated to Chopin, who a decade later, dedicated the German edition of his 24 Preludes, Op. 28 to Kessler.
No. 18 starts in D♭ but changes to f#; No. 22 starts in f but changes to D♭; No. 24 changes from E♭ to e♭. This set, despite including 30 pieces, includes no enharmonic pairs at all. The versions of the six keys which have enharmonic pairs used are B major, G# minor, F# major, E♭ minor, D♭ major, and B♭ minor. The thirty pieces are filled out by duplicating six keys with fewer sharps or flats.[46]
These covered the neutral and flat keys only. Liszt originally planned to write the full suite of 24 études but apparently abandoned this plan. See Sergei Lyapunov below.
[66] These cover only 20 unique keys. Some studies consist of a prelude and fugue, usually in the same keys, except No. 4 (E and a), No. 14 (f and F), No. 17 (d and D), and No. 37 (B♭ and b♭). The final study is in the form of a theme and 34 variations.
This was either "patterned after Bach"[68] or "a kind of preparation" for Bach's 48.[69] After Klengel's death, Hauptmann edited and published Klengel's 48 Canons and Fugues, writing "he expressed his own thoughts in the way in which Bach would have done had he lived at the present day"[70]
These complete the sequence that was started with the 12 Études in all the major keys, Op. 35. Études 4–7 comprise the Symphony for Solo Piano, and Études 8–10 make up the Concerto for Solo Piano.
There are 2 preludes for each key, except G and E♭ (3 each) and C (4), for a total of 30 preludes. Each of the 26 different keys is preceded by a scale.[95]
[100] 59 pieces were originally published, with a further 4 being added in a later edition. Those 4 had remained in manuscript due to Franck's death while working on the composition. (A second set of 30 early pieces, L'Organiste, Vol. II was published in 1900, but these were collected from various unrelated manuscripts and do not cover the range of keys.)
Scriabin chose G♭ over F#. He seems to have set out to write a further set of 24 preludes, and the 23 preludes of Opp. 13, 15, 16 and 17 (containing 6, 5, 5 and 7 preludes respectively) contain evidence of this, but he obviously moved away from his original idea as the key sequence breaks down.[107]
Book I: There are 2 successive canons for each key, except B and b (3 each), and f# (4). Also, e♭ appears in different places in the sequence, for a total of 4 canons.
111 Canons in all major and minor tonalities: Book II: Three-Part Canons (48)
Book II: There are 2 successive canons for each key, except b♭, e♭, a♭, D♭, F#, G♭, C# and C♭ (1 each); and c and D (3 each). Also the order of g# and b is reversed between Books I and II.
The work is in 25 parts: 24 preludes, ordered by ascending fourths (increasing flats, decreasing sharps), and a final Postludium in C major. It is dedicated to Isidor Seiss.
Opp. 27, 65, 88, 98, 111, 119, 127, 132, 142, 146, 148, 154, 161, 165, 168, 175, 181, 188, 193, 196; Rheinberger set out to write 24 organ sonatas, one in each key. He completed 20 of these before his death in 1901.[112]
[113] Cui's order of keys is unique in that each major key is followed by the minor of its mediant (e.g. C major to E minor). It includes a 25th prelude in C major.[114]
This set complements Franz Liszt's set of 12 Transcendental Études from 1826 to 1852 (which was written in neutral and flat keys only) by employing the remaining sharp keys. It is dedicated to Liszt's memory.[1]
The set contains 12 pairs of preludes and fugues; 6 preludes in major keys are followed by fugues in their respective parallel minors, and vice-versa, making 24 keys in all[116]
The Prelude in C# minor, Op. 3/2, was part of a collection of pieces, and there is no evidence Rachmaninoff had at that stage planned to write 24 preludes traversing all the keys. Between 1901 and 1903, he wrote 10 Preludes, Op. 23, and in 1910, he completed the 24 with his 13 Preludes, Op. 32.[122]
[140] The 11th Etüde bears a striking similarity to the 11th variation of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Variations on a Theme of Glinka, for oboe and military band.[141]
Twelve of these were published by Andrés Segovia in 1930, but the remainder had to wait for the guitarist Miguel Alcazar to reconstruct them from Ponce's manuscripts before being published in 1981.[143][144]
Prelude No. 22, although it is effectively in B♭ minor, has a key signature with 6 flats, as if it were written in E♭ minor (like Prelude No. 8). Most C naturals in this prelude are arrived at via the use of accidentals, while C♭, which would have required accidentals had the true key signature with only 5 flats been used, requires no alteration.[150]
The set was lost, possibly destroyed in WWII bombing.[155] Ashton also wrote 8 piano sonatas,[155] all in different keys,[156] and it may be that he planned to complete a cycle of 24 of them as well. One source says he wrote 24 Preludes and Fugues,[157] but this is not corroborated.
See also 24 Preludes, Op. 34 (1932–33). In both these cases, Shostakovich adhered to Chopin's order of keys, although he was greatly influenced by Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier and even quoted parts of that work in Op.87.
24 sets of preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys, with an additional 25th prelude and fugue (on a theme from Ernő Dohnányi) added at the end.
Twenty-Four Etudes in All Keys
Twelve Master Etudes in Minor Keys, Op. 29
Twenty-Four Variations on the Theme "Happy Birthday"
Major/parallel minor pairs, random order. Written during a fortnight's hospital stay, as a birthday present to himself; FP October 1960, composer, Edinburgh Society of Musicians.[177]
Described as "the longest and most important cycle of works for two guitars ever composed", the 200-page score was written between 8 March and 3 June 1962, in response to performances by the popular husband-wife duo Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya[178]
Some have names which suggest the character of the piece such as "Siciliano", "Tarantella", or "Gavotte". As in the case of Emil Sjögren's Legends for organ, the collection is divided in two volumes, where the first has the pieces ordered in a perfect half-circle of fifths from C major to G# minor, and the second volume is ordered in a half-circle of fifths backwards, i.e. starting with F major and ending with E♭ minor.
24 preludes and fugues + a closing "Finale: Natale", written for the 300th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach[207] 12 major keys ascending chromatically are followed by the 12 minor keys in the same order.
Inspired to create this cycle after listening to Glenn Gould's recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier on New Year's Eve, 1993. The cycle was dedicated to the memory of A. N. Dolzhansky. It follows Bach's key organization, ascending in chromatic order from C major to B minor.[187]
The major keys tour the circle of fifths in the flat direction (beginning with C major and ending with G major), while the minor keys tour in the same mode but begin at the other side of the circle (starting with G# minor and ending with E♭ minor). This has the effect of juxtaposing very unrelated keys, and spacing relative majors and minors as far apart from one another as possible.[219]
These 24 Preludes are based on a seven-note scale consisting of the six notes of the whole–tone scale with the addition of the perfect fourth [253] The sequence includes preludes in D#, G# and A#, which are normally considered theoretical keys as their key signatures include double sharps.
Four books (each of 6 Preludes and Fugues) based around one of the notes of the name B A C H (B♭, A C and B natural in German), and starting and ending in the major or minor tonality of the 4 keys.[274][275][276]
Preludes are all canons. In the first 12, each major key is followed by the minor key of the next note (C, c#, D, e♭ ...). For the remainder, minor keys are followed by the major key of the next note (c, C#, d, E♭ ...)[279]
Fugues and fugal movements over everyday life melodies (from ringtones and children's songs to popular, film, tv and classical music; simple, double, triple and quadrupel fugues; multithematic fantasies)[280]
↑ In extremely rare cases, theoretical keys do appear with their double-accidental key signatures in real music: an example is John Foulds' A World Requiem, which ends in G-sharp major with F in the key signature.[7]
Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov was a Russian composer, teacher and conductor.
Sergei Mikhailovich Lyapunov was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor.
C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, and B♭. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E♭ major and its parallel major is C major.
A-flat major is a major scale based on A♭, with the pitches A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♭, F, and G. Its key signature has four flats.
D-flat major is a major scale based on D♭, consisting of the pitches D♭, E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭ and C. Its key signature has five flats.
F-sharp minor is a minor scale based on F♯, consisting of the pitches F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯, D, and E. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative major is A major and its parallel major is F-sharp major.
G-sharp minor is a minor scale based on G♯, consisting of the pitches G♯, A♯, B, C♯, D♯, E, and F♯. Its key signature has five sharps.
Alexander Fyodorovich Goedicke was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.
F minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, and E♭. Its key signature consists of four flats. Its relative major is A-flat major and its parallel major is F major. Its enharmonic equivalent, E-sharp minor, has six single sharps and the double sharp F, which makes it impractical to use.
B-flat minor is a minor scale based on B♭, consisting of the pitches B♭, C, D♭, E♭, F, G♭, and A♭. Its key signature has five flats. Its relative major is D-flat major and its parallel major is B-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent, A-sharp minor, which would contain seven sharps, is not normally used.
E-flat minor is a minor scale based on E♭, consisting of the pitches E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭, C♭, and D♭. Its key signature consists of six flats. Its relative key is G-flat major and its parallel key is E-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent, D-sharp minor, contains the same number of sharps.
Frédéric Chopin wrote a number of preludes for piano solo. His cycle of 24 Preludes, Op. 28, covers all major and minor keys. In addition, Chopin wrote three other preludes: a prelude in C♯ minor, Op. 45; a piece in A♭ major from 1834; and an unfinished piece in E♭ minor. These are sometimes referred to as Nos. 25, 26, and 27, respectively.
Georgy Lvovich Catoire was a Russian composer of French heritage.
The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time clavier referred to a variety of keyboard instruments, namely the harpsichord, the clavichord and the organ, but not excluding the regal and the then newly-invented fortepiano.
Alexander Scriabin's 24 Preludes, Op. 11 is a set of preludes composed in the course of eight years between 1888–96, being also one of Scriabin's first published works with M.P. Belaieff in 1897, in Leipzig, Germany, together with his 12 Études, Op. 8 (1894–95).
Charles-Valentin Alkan wrote 25 preludes for solo piano or organ in 1844; they were published as his Op. 31 in 1847. These preludes span all 24 major and minor keys, plus an additional 25th prelude in C major.
The Études-Tableaux, Op. 33, is the first of two sets of piano études composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff. They were intended to be "picture pieces", essentially "musical evocations of external visual stimuli". But Rachmaninoff did not disclose what inspired each one, stating: "I do not believe in the artist that discloses too much of his images. Let [the listener] paint for themselves what it most suggests." However, he willingly shared sources for a few of these études with the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi when Respighi orchestrated them in 1930.
↑ Riley, Maurice W. (1991), "The Identity of L. Casimir-Ney, His Compositions, and an Evaluation of His 24 Préludes for Solo Viola", The History of the Viola, Volume II, Ann Arbor, Michigan: Braun-Brumfield, pp.144–145
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