With Episode 9 premiering tonight, we’re quickly nearing the end of the first season of Westworld . The Season was quick to establish intellectual questions but far slower in setting up consequential emotional plotlines. Though by Episode 9, I finally have some arcs to care about. Below are my thoughts on what we can expect from ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier.’
Let’s start with the name, ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’ is the name of a series of preludes and fugues composed by Bach in the 1720s. A clavier is the french word for Keyboard, often referring to a harpsichord. ‘Well-Tempered,’ refers to a style of tuning in which minor and major keys can be played without the instrument sounding out of tune. It can also be called ‘Circular Temperament.’
So at its base ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier,’ refers to a keyboard that has been tuned in such a way that it can play major and minor keys at ease, or more directly, Bach’s series of fugues of the same name. Keyboards and player pianos are a huge thematic aspect of Westworld , as seen in the credits and most episodes. In the ideal world, the hosts act as player pianos, appearing to have life but really just executing on their set programming. But in terms of where we are with the story, Thandie Newton’s Maeve comes to mind as our well-tempered clavier. With her increased intelligence and most developed self-awareness, she can easily adjust her emotional outputs at will. Thus she can be seen to be able to play both major and minor keys when needed to manipulate those around her. Think Ava in Ex Machina – another self-aware robot that can use all aspects of human facial cues to her own benefit. I think we’ll see Maeve continuing to manipulate humans in her attempt to escape.
It is also worth noting that Bach’s composition of the same name features predominantly fugues. A fugue, musically, is based on the repetition of a series of notes. As the notes repeat they change slightly, thus forming a series of circles that have ever growing variations. We see the same things in the lives of the hosts. They run through the circles of their daily life with only slight changes marking the days as different from each other. Overtime, those slight changes can build to something much larger. We’ve seen several hosts break out of their circles – Maeve and past-Dolores (yes, I believe that Westworld Theory).
Finally, it is worth noting that on the top of the first page of Bach’s composition, he left a series of handdrawn spirals. Seen below courtesy of Wikipedia:
These are thought to be tuning instructions, but here again we see circles within circles, slightly changing loops. It is hard to deny the thematic relevance. I believe for the name to fit the episode, we will need to see more clear examples of it playing out in the episode. Will we start to examine Bernard’s loops more closely? Is Arnold a well-tempered clavier playing everyone from ‘beyond the grave?’ We’ll have to wait until tonight to find out.
