Johann Sebastian Bach

Prelude Do Majeur BWV 846

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We have set ourselves the goal of offering both "must-haves" from the classical repertoire and pieces by sometimes forgotten composers, all of undeniable pedagogical value. Each piece, sold individually, has been the subject of careful editorial work, both in terms of the musical text and its engraving, in order to guarantee musicians the conditions essential to the pleasures derived from frequent trade in these works.

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The Prelude that opens the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, famous among all, takes up the common practice, at the time, of preluding on a fabric of broken harmonies, in the style of lute players' improvisations. It consists of thirty-five measures of arpeggios evenly divided between the hands (two notes on the left, three on the right), which can be reduced to chords.
Apart from a few passing modulations, the key of C major remains dominant from the beginning to the end of the piece. In its harmonic essence, the Prélude, which can be likened to a lute prelude, is also an accompaniment for a virtual melody.
This is how Charles Gounod heard it, using it as the basis for his famous Ave Maria.