Bach's Four Duets; Clavierübung III of 1739

Dear Corinne Davis, dear Group Participants,

I should like to respond, re:The Four Duets!

These Four Duets are - to me - a unique jewel within Bach's works. I
started to play them on the keyboard, piano and harpsichord, later
on the organ as well, in about 1971.

These enigmatic and strange sounding pieces, "gigantic inventions"
had been resisting during decades, and even centuries, all explanations
as to their significance; (see the miserable, pitoyable and totally
helpless utterings on this question by Prof. Tessmer in his separate
edition, Kassel, of the Four Duets). Until I discovered about 1984/85
that they represent nothing else than Bach's encoded instructions and
specifications of his unequal harpsichord tuning"wohltemperirt". See:

http://ha.kellner.bei.t-online.de

According to some sources, harpsichordists got increasingly fond of
playing and recording these Duets; such as Profs. Ahlgrimm, Wooley,
Beaus�jour, Dreyfus, etc., etc.

Specific references are:
Kellner, H.A.: How Bach quantified his well-tempered tuning within
the Four Duets. English Harpsichord Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 2,
1986(87), page 21-27

Idem: Barocke Akustik und Numerologie in den Vier Duetten: Bachs
"Musicalische Temperatur". In "Bericht �ber den Internationalen
Musikwissenschaftlichen Kongre� Stuttgart 1985", Hg. Dietrich
Berke und Dorothea Hanemann, Kassel 1987, page 439-449.

Music "consumers", however, may be warned: a friend of mine pretended
and confessed to me he couldn't hear these Duets as music. There is,
though, despite all my admiration and excitement, something to that.
These Duets are genuine mathematics that Bach has transformed
into music which is, of course, very much to my own liking.

I wish "bon courage" - an open mind paired with courage to read these
articles about Bach's "Musicalische Temperatur". Above all, please do
LISTEN to these Duets. And even BETTER, study and play them on the
keyboard (or via arrangements, otherwise): as they are set are manualiter,
readily accessible on the Piano.

Best regards,

Herbert Anton Kellner