This belongs to the family of understated preludes. It is a rather free work, both in form and voicing. Form-wise, it feints towards being an invention, but quickly turns into a wandering, instrumental arioso. This piece woudn't be out of place in the interior movement of one of Bach's cantatas.

The freeness, in this case, results in an extremely pretty and expressive work. It explores both the highest and lowest ranges of the keyboard, and also engages in some motivic exploration that, to my mind, foreshadows some of the techniques Beethoven would eventually use. Specifically, the right hand melody in measure 1 has two components: a steady-eighth flow idea connected to a dotted-rhythm idea. They remain separate at first, but then are combined vertically from 0:37-0:46, sounding simultaneously, left vs. right hand (see the analysis of Beethoven's Op. 10, No. 1, finale in Chapter 6 of Musical Motives). The flowing-eighth idea, moreover, from the start intimates an interest in self-replicating to create a much longer thread of eighth notes. This technique, at the climax of the work from 1:51-2:08, is extended to create a long stretch of flowing eighths in the right hand and four sets of dotted rhythm pattern in the left (which are also plummeting to the lowest notes of the piece). Bach, in other words, is "upping the ante" here.

There is also, quite famously, a bit of motivic foreshadowing at the end of the prelude. The tenor (left hand thumb) inside the last cadence pre-presents the four-note, "cruciform" subject of the fugue that is to follow!

Performance notes:

This is a good piece to play early in one's study of the Well-Tempered. It is undemanding technically and, moreover, offers a preview of an important finger-pedaling technique that will return elsewhere in the WTC. In m. 16 and again in m. 18, the music unspools a triad in the right hand in a way that each note is "frozen" in place as it enters. This technique is highlighted in the Eb major prelude, Bk II and makes appearances in the D major Prelude, Bk II and A minor prelude, Bk I

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