My Well-tempered Clavier, Bk 1 is a product of sampled piano technology coupled with midi editing.

The term "midi-editing" or "midi," for short, means many different things to different people. There are at least three distinct senses in which the word is commonly used.

In one sense, "midi" is merely as a recording mechanism, very much like a tape recorder. Thus, midi enables the pianist to play a Chopin Etude at a real piano and listen to the piano play back his interpretation, pretty much exactly as he played it originally, including note lengths, tempi, dynamics, and pedaling. Both Bosendorfer and Yamaha have hooked up "midi" to a number of their instruments to achieve this result. A listener would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the original performance and the performance given again, so to speak, by means of the midi file that is created by the original performance.

The word "midi" is also commonly used to refer to the process where the midi file that records the original "realtime" performance is subsequently
altered. The purpose of such alterations may be to correct mechanical
errors, such as missed notes or wrong notes. But midi editing can go much
further than that, altering the entire interpretation, thus rendering a "performance" that bears very little relation to the original.

The final sense in which the word "midi" is used is well-known, and refers
to the process where the pianist, or even the non-pianist, sits at a computer and, using a midi program, constructs a Chopin Etude note by note, entering note values, durations, dynamics, etc., not once touching a piano keyboard. He may enter notes at a piano keyboard hooked up to a computer if he wishes, but he need not. He can restrict himself to the computer keyboard.

Midi in the latter sense almost always produces results that are mechanical and difficult to listen to.

My interpretation of Bk 1 of the Well-tempered employs the first two senses of midi. Although with each successive edite, it is primarily the second sense of midi that applies. In earlier versions I attempted to enter notes entirely mechanically, through the computer keyboard, but the results were not satisfactory.

In some instances I tried entering voices separately, but first results were
unnatural. The "separation of voices" is one of the hallmarks of
Bach's music. But Bach's keyboard music is nonetheless written to be
performed by two hands, not four or five separate hands playing simultaneously!

Initially, the impetus for my work was twofold: 1) to make a version of the Well-tempered that I personally would enjoy listening to; 2) to produce a model or target for myself; something that would help me understand the music better at the keyboard.

The project started in 1987, and evolved as the technology for midi and piano improved. Something like the version that now appears at Piano Society first appeared at Mp3.com when it started up a number of years ago.

By the time mp3.com had closed down, I had made numerous changes to various preludes and fugues. About 600,000 individual preludes and fugues had been downloaded via mp3.com.

Listeners may be surprised to discover that in the version now up at Piano
Society I employ a "sampled piano," not a real piano. By "sampled piano"
I mean a real piano that has been pre-recorded note by note, ppp to fff,
pedal up and pedal down. The pre-recorded piano is a Bosendorfer 290,
recorded in a small hall, in stereo. Piano technician: Jan Van Loon.

Samples and programming: Michiel Post.

I started playing piano at three, began lessons at six, and finished formal study at 18. At home I play a Model 500 Kawai.

John can be contacted at dohgrant(at)sympatico.ca

- John L. Grant