[1][2] It was both inspired by and a tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, a work for solo keyboard.
[2][4] From the mid-1950s he also dedicated solo guitar pieces to guitarists such as Siegfried Behrend, Christopher Parkening, Oscar Ghiglia, Alirio Díaz, Laurindo Almeida and others.
[4] However, this work was both inspired by and dedicated to the husband-wife duo guitar team of Alexandre Lagoya and Ida Presti.
[1][5] Both the title and the structure of the work were inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, a double set of 48 preludes and fugues for keyboard in all 24 major and minor keys.
Instead, Castelnuovo-Tedesco used a schema based on the circle of fifths - but not the same solution as used by Chopin in his 24 Preludes, Op.