Collection of
music compiled by
J.S. Bach for his wife, Anna Magdalena. We only know what Bach has presented to us. For some years, the pieces in this
notebook, so-called because it was written out
longhand, were all thought to be by Bach. Modern
scholarship has disproved this.
Before the age of printing, this was the only way for a teacher, and in this case, a husband, to prepare a student and/or loved one for the practice of music.
The best edition to acquire is the Urtext, that is, unedited by any hand. For, in Bach's time, the stylistics of playing were considered to be known by the performer. Also, since his time, editors have tended to replace the stylistics of the original with those of their own.
It is used as one of several piano teaching books by contemporary teachers, either directly or in excerpts.