Description
Sixteenth notes run without a break from start to finish in this E major Prélude, the opening movement of BWV 1006a. That work is Bach's own reworking of the Partita No. 3 for solo violin, BWV 1006, and its autograph leaves the instrument unnamed, though the lute or lute-harpsichord is usually assumed. Bach also reused the same prelude, with solo organ, as the sinfonia of Cantata No. 29.
In 3/4, it brings one violinistic figure after another: repeated notes, broken chords, patterns that cross between strings. A bass line is added to the original single melody, so on the keyboard it sounds in two parts. It has 1,742 notes, and its range runs from A1 to E5, the lowest note below the left end of a 61-key keyboard, though an octave shift fits it on one.
Rated intermediate, it still demands the stamina to keep unbroken sixteenth notes even. Isolate the places where the figure changes with the A-B loop, check the finger movements at a reduced playback speed, then work back towards the original tempo. The hand colours also distinguish the melody from the added bass.
A collection of preludes not tied to a specific set, featuring short, evocative works by composers from Bach to more modern voices.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was the towering figure of German Baroque music, serving for decades as Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Renowned for his mastery of counterpoint, he laid the foundations of keyboard music with works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Inventions. This site includes minuets and polonaises from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, the Inventions and Sinfonias, and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier. The Notebook pieces are catalogued with BWV Anh. (appendix) numbers, but many are by other composers - Petzold's minuets among them - or by no one known, and most of their song pages give the current view of who wrote them.
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