Prelude in C
J. S. Bach · 1722 · C major
Public domainC majorPS-10
The piece
▶ Hear it and open the arrangementThe first prelude of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier turns a sequence of chords into a continuous surface. Almost every bar uses the same broken-chord pattern, so harmony—not rhythmic invention—does the travelling.
How this version is built
- One PS-10 track plays the five-note broken-chord cell across eight selected bars.
- The repeated up-and-down figure remains constant while one or two chord tones shift beneath it.
- A gentle triangle voice keeps dense arpeggios transparent enough to hear the harmony move.
Listen for
- The identical rhythmic cell making each new chord immediately comparable with the last.
- Bass notes changing the meaning of upper notes that sometimes stay in place.
- Tension accumulating through harmony while the performance gesture remains calm.
Remix prompts
- Move the pattern to PS-ARP and let a pad hold only the first note of each bar.
- Change the waveform halfway through as an arrangement marker.