Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
Twelve Polonaises
The polonaise was a fashionable dance form not only in Chopin and Liszt’s time, for Johann Sebastian Bach’s son Wilhelm Friedemann had already brought this Polish national dance to a high-point. His twelve Polonaises were so popular in his time that they survive in numerous manuscripts, meaning that today’s pianists can enjoy these most successful of W. F. Bach’s piano compositions. Colourful and effective, they ascend stepwise through the keys, with a polonaise in the major and one in the minor juxtaposed in each case. The pieces are sensitive and expressive, and Bach is clearly setting off along the path to the character piece with these Polonaises. He probably played them on the clavichord, the delicate and favoured instrument of this time of sensibility.
About the Composer
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
A German composer, organist, and the eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. Educated by his father, he numbered among the most popular organists of his day. As a composer he initially drew upon older musical forms, but increasingly yielded to elements of Classicism over the course of his creative life. He wrote, among other things, virtuosic works for keyboard instruments including important concerti for harpsichord, cantatas, chamber music, and orchestral works.
| 1710 | Born in Weimar on November 22. |
| 1717–23 | He (probably) attends the Lutheran grammar school in Köthen. |
| 1720 | On January 22, his father compiles the Clavier-Büchlein (Little keyboard book) for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. It documents his earliest musical progress and contains his first attempts at composition. |
| 1723 | The family moves to Leipzig, where on June 14 he becomes a pupil at the Thomasschule. |
| around 1726 | He receives violin lessons from Johann Gottlieb Graun. |
| 1729 | On March 5 he matriculates at the law faculty of the University of Leipzig. |
| 1733–46 | On August 1 he becomes organist at St. Sophia’s Church in Dresden. He becomes involved in the musical life of the Dresden court and socializes with members of the nobility interested in music and to whom he dedicates some of his compositions. |
| 1746–64 | He is organist at the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle/Saale, writing many cantatas. Tensions in his work environment lead him to resign. |
| from 1764 | He attempts to secure his family’s livelihood by giving private lessons. |
| from 1774 | He settles in Berlin, and consolidates his reputation as a virtuoso concert organist and improviser. |
| 1784 | Destitute, he dies in Berlin on July 1. |
About the Authors
Klaus Schilde (Fingering)
Prof. Klaus Schilde, born in 1926, spent his childhood in Dresden. There he was greatly influenced by Walter Engel, who taught him the piano (Kodaly method), composition and violin. From 1946–1948 he studied at the music conservatory in Leipzig with Hugo Steurer. After moving to the west in 1952 he studied with Walter Gieseking and Edwin Fischer, as well as with Marguerite Long, Lucette Descaves and Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
Schilde won numerous prizes. From 1947 onwards he gave concerts as a soloist and chamber musician on almost every single continent with renowned orchestras. He taught at the music conservatories in East Berlin Detmold, West Berlin, Munich, Tokyo (Geidai) and Weimar. From 1988–1991 he was President of the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, where he also taught for decades as a professor. There are numerous radio and television broadcasts with Klaus Schilde as well as CD recordings. Schilde has contributed fingerings to almost 100 Henle Urtext editions.
Prof. Klaus Schilde passed away on 10 December, 2020.