The Fugue in All Keys takes the listener on a journey through Book 1 of
J.S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier. The four voices or made from statistical
averages of the pitches in all 24 fugues. In honor of Bach's obsession with
well-tempered tuning, all average pitches are rounded to the nearest well tempered pitch.
In order to achieve the ranges of the voices, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices were weighted with the pitches
A880, A440, A220, and A110 respectively.
The fugue begins with the soprano voice in the left channel, the alto voice in the surround right channel,
the tenor voice in the right channel, and the bass voice in the surround left channel. After all the voices
are present, they begin a counter-clockwise rotation around the listener. They come full circle to their original
positions just before the soprano voice fades out.
The prepared piano adds a rhythmic quality to the piece. The rhythm is broadly improvised by the performer.