BWV 888, the P&F in A major for WTCII, got played today after a six-hour drive and was not absorbed as well as I would like. Still, there is the steady pleasure of feeling the moving voices under my fingers, the satisfaction of resolving the harmonies, counting the rhythms and observing the fingerings. I hope those reading these posts are poking through these magnificent little pieces, too.
I just noticed that all the P&F’s for WTC I & II have BWV numbers in the 800s. How have I missed this little detail? It means that today’s P&F is the only one in the Well Tempered Clavier that has three repeated numbers — 888. BWV stands for Bach Werke Verzeichnis — Bach Works Catalogue. An organized person named Wolfgang Schmieder put the catalogue together in the 1950s. Perhaps “Wolfgang Schmieder Day” is in order to celebrate the BWV, so helpful for keeping all us Bach fans straight.