FRENETIC & IMPETUOUS
Story behind the song
FRENETIC & IMPETUOUS, the second prelude from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, begins with a flurry of broken chords. It races along until it stops for a dark and plaintive recitativo. A busy fugato sequence based on the earlier arpeggiated figuration intrudes, until it is subdued by a mysterious adagio, that ends hesitatingly in C major. The very last E is a beautiful punctuation point to the piece, much more so than an unconvincing but supposedly more resounding C.