Path 01
Start here
Ten well-known works to learn the map on, each open in full to everyone.
Pachelbel → Bach → Vivaldi → Mozart → Beethoven → Schubert → Chopin → Dvořák → Debussy
Listening paths · Path 28
Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier
A prelude and fugue in every major and minor key: Book I complete, then eleven pairs from Book II.
Bach wrote the Well-Tempered Clavier for keyboard players who wanted to play in every key: twenty-four preludes and fugues, one pair for each major and minor key, rising by semitone from C. He finished the first book in 1722 and assembled a second about twenty years later. Each prelude is free in form, a pattern of broken chords, a dance, a duet; each fugue grows from one subject, entering voice by voice. Book I is here complete, as one work; from Book II come eleven pairs, in key order.
BachThe Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 846-869The 1722 book complete: 24 pairs, rising by semitone from C major to B minor, each prelude followed by its fugue. Notice the range: a C major prelude of pure broken chords, the book's only two-voice fugue in E minor, five-voice fugues in C-sharp minor and B-flat minor, and a last subject that uses all twelve notes.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major (WTC II), BWV 870
Book II opens on a broader scale. The prelude unfolds over a long held bass note, and its return begins a fourth higher, in F major. The three-voice fugue hardly stops running; its Coda, a flourish with left-hand leaps, was added when Bach took the piece into the book.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-sharp major (WTC II), BWV 872
Rolling broken chords, the only prelude in Book II built on the pattern so familiar from Book I, until a quick Fugato breaks the calm. The fugue's short, detached theme outlines a major chord, and in the Exposition the third voice comes in upside down.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 4 in C-sharp minor (WTC II), BWV 873
A tender, heavily ornamented prelude in a swaying 9/8, close to a siciliano. The fugue races in 12/16 like a gigue; from the Counter-exposition a slower theme with a chromatic descent joins the first, and later the two sound together.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 5 in D major (WTC II), BWV 874
Festive D major with drum-like dotted figures. The prelude's plan looks ahead to sonata form: a falling scale announces Period IV / Recapitulation. The four-voice fugue grows from three quick repeated notes and two long ones, and its Recapitulatory Section packs the entries into close stretti.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 9 in E major (WTC II), BWV 878
A calm prelude over rocking octaves, then a fugue in the old vocal style, all long notes in cut time. Bach kept the theme, key and plan of a fugue by J. C. F. Fischer and made it nearly twice as long; from the Counter-exposition on, the entries crowd closer together.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 11 in F major (WTC II), BWV 880
A pair of opposites. The slow prelude's long held notes build a five-part texture that suggests the organ; the fugue is a quick three-voice gigue whose subject starts after a rest, and its Exposition holds an unusually long stretch without the subject.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 14 in F-sharp minor (WTC II), BWV 883
A song-like prelude in 3/4 that closes on a major chord, then the only triple fugue in the book. Three themes, one jumping, one smooth, one cascading, each get an exposition of their own before all three sound together near the end.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 16 in G minor (WTC II), BWV 885
Largo, in Bach's own hand, one of the very few tempo words in the 48: three voices in stately dotted rhythms, framed by a held bass note. The four-voice fugue's subject is full of rests and repeated notes, and a last powerful bass entry arrives in the Coda.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 17 in A-flat major (WTC II), BWV 886
The prelude was written for the book; the fugue began some two decades earlier as a short fughetta in F major. Its gentle subject brings two countersubjects, one falling by semitones, one in running semiquavers, and an extra voice joins for the final entry.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 22 in B-flat minor (WTC II), BWV 891
A closely woven three-voice prelude, almost a trio sonata, that reaches the major only on its last chord. Then one of Bach's severest fugues: four voices, a block-like subject of leaps and tense rests, and stretti that set the subject against its own inversion.
- BachPrelude and Fugue No. 24 in B minor (WTC II), BWV 893
Book II ends with a dance rather than a grand finale. The prelude is a buoyant two-voice duet marked Allegro; the fugue is a three-voice passepied in 3/8 whose theme leaps by octaves, and its short Coda closes the whole set of 48 in good humour.
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Path 02
Symphonies everyone should know
Twelve symphonies from Mozart's Fortieth to Shostakovich's Fifth, the core of the concert repertoire.
Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Schubert → Berlioz → Mendelssohn → Brahms → Mahler → Tchaikovsky → Dvořák → Shostakovich
Path 03
Calm classical music
Twelve slow, quiet pieces, from Chopin's lullaby to Pärt's Fratres.
Chopin → Liszt → Wagner → Debussy → Massenet → Fauré → Grainger → Delius → Vaughan Williams → Rachmaninoff → Pärt
Path 04
Baroque essentials
Ground bass, ritornello, fugue and dance: the Baroque in twelve works, from Purcell to Bach's Musical Offering.
Purcell → Pachelbel → Bach → Vivaldi → Handel → Scarlatti
Path 05
Understanding sonata form
The form behind most first movements, heard twelve times, from a small sonata to a symphony.
Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Schubert → Mendelssohn → Brahms → Prokofiev
Path 06
Haydn in London
Haydn's two London visits, 1791–95: six of the symphonies he wrote there, three piano sonatas, and what he took home to Vienna.
Haydn
Path 07
Ten minutes or less
Short, complete works for a single sitting.
Bach → Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Schubert → Mendelssohn → Saint-Saëns → Sibelius → Ravel → Debussy → Gershwin → Copland
Path 08
The string quartet, 1772 to 1960
Four players across almost two centuries: Haydn shapes the conversation, Bartók breaks it open, Shostakovich turns it inward.
Haydn → Mozart → Schubert → Beethoven → Dvořák → Debussy → Reger → Bartók → Shostakovich
Path 09
Fifteen kinds of work
One work for each kind in the catalog, from the symphony to choral music.
Beethoven → Vivaldi → Debussy → Holst → Dvořák → Mozart → Chopin → Scarlatti → Bach → Schubert → Strauss → Handel
Path 10
Beethoven's nine symphonies
From the First of 1800 to the Choral of 1824, in the order Beethoven wrote them.
Beethoven
Path 11
The concerto, 1721 to 1959
Soloist and orchestra across two and a half centuries, from Bach's harpsichord to Rostropovich's cello.
Bach → Vivaldi → Mozart → Beethoven → Mendelssohn → Tchaikovsky → Dvořák → Rachmaninoff → Ravel → Shostakovich
Path 12
Romantic piano
Eleven short pieces from Field to Grieg, each holding one mood.
Field → Schubert → Mendelssohn → Chopin → Schumann → Liszt → Tchaikovsky → Rachmaninoff → Brahms → Grieg
Path 13
The art song, from Schubert to Strauss
A poem, a voice and a piano, later an orchestra: from Schubert's first masterpieces to Strauss's last songs.
Schubert → Schumann → Wagner → Mahler → Debussy → Fauré → Strauss
Path 14
Variations and fugue
Two ways of making much from little: a theme changed again and again, and a subject passed from voice to voice.
Bach → Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Mendelssohn → Brahms → Elgar
Path 15
Paris around 1900
Fauré, Satie, Debussy, Chausson, Dukas and Ravel, from 1887 to 1920.
Fauré → Satie → Debussy → Chausson → Dukas → Ravel
Path 16
Russian voices
From Glinka to Shostakovich: a century of Russian music, in the order it was written.
Glinka → Balakirev → Mussorgsky → Borodin → Rimsky-Korsakov → Tchaikovsky → Rachmaninoff → Scriabin → Prokofiev → Shostakovich
Path 17
Chopin's piano music
Nocturne, étude, mazurka, scherzo, ballade, polonaise, waltz: Chopin's genres in twelve works, in the order he wrote them.
Chopin
Path 18
Essential Mozart
Mozart in twelve works, from a motet written at sixteen to the Requiem he left unfinished.
Mozart
Path 19
Essential Brahms
Brahms in twelve works, from the First Piano Concerto to the last of his piano pieces.
Brahms
Path 20
The piano sonata, from Mozart to Prokofiev
Twelve piano sonatas from Mozart and Haydn to Prokofiev's war sonata of 1942.
Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Schubert → Chopin → Liszt → Berg → Bartók → Prokofiev
Path 21
Debussy and Ravel
Two French composers side by side, often compared and often confused, from 1891 to Boléro in 1928.
Debussy → Ravel
Path 22
Romantic violin concertos
Ten violin concertos, from Beethoven's of 1806 to Sibelius's of 1904.
Beethoven → Paganini → Mendelssohn → Wieniawski → Bruch → Lalo → Brahms → Tchaikovsky → Dvořák → Sibelius
Path 23
Mahler, Bruckner and Strauss
The late Romantic orchestra at its largest: Bruckner's and Mahler's symphonies and Strauss's tone poems, 1880 to 1945.
Bruckner → Mahler → Strauss
Path 24
Music of the nations
Folk songs, dances and landscapes, from Liszt's Hungary to Márquez's Mexico.
Liszt → Smetana → Grieg → Albéniz → Dvořák → Sibelius → Elgar → Vaughan Williams → Janáček → Villa-Lobos → Rodrigo → Márquez
Path 25
Choral masterpieces
Choirs from Handel's coronation anthem to Ligeti's cloud of voices: masses, requiems and psalms, 1727 to 1966.
Handel → Mozart → Brahms → Verdi → Fauré → Orff → Messiaen → Bernstein → Ligeti
Path 26
Famous overtures
Twelve overtures from Mozart's Figaro to Bernstein's Candide, each a complete piece in a few minutes.
Mozart → Beethoven → Rossini → Weber → Mendelssohn → Wagner → Berlioz → Offenbach → Brahms → Tchaikovsky → Bernstein
Path 27
20th-century classical music
Twelve directions the century took, from Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht of 1899 to Piazzolla's tango of 1982.
Schoenberg → Ives → Bartók → Holst → Gershwin → Barber → Prokofiev → Copland → Ligeti → Górecki → Piazzolla