Too few people know about this prelude: it’s one of the most beautiful and creative pieces in all of the Well-Tempered Clavier.

It starts as a figurated prelude, just like the C major prelude that opens Book I. But where that work repeats its basic pattern with essentially no changes from measure to measure, this one has, over time, acquired a set of beautiful variants that are now preferred over the original version. The little shifts, when they appear, do so mostly in the top voice of the left hand.

This freer, occasionally melodic tenor, combined with the more complex (more interesting) patterns in the right hand, result in this piece having richer kaleidoscopic color shifts than its paler partner in Book I.  

The piece is also remarkable for its highly lopsided binary structure. It spends most of its time wandering over to dominant harmony, which is prepared with a great deal of tension from 1:47-2:02. The moment it arrives, a new, lively mini-piece begins. Three voices enter in imitation, and the dance-like work curlicues and pirouettes itself back home to tonic in just about thirty seconds!

Both segments of the work are perfect in themselves: a gorgeous, meditative essay and a graceful, spritely jaunt. Put together, they make a nearly perfect prelude.

Spirit twin (mentioned earlier): C major prelude, Bk I

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