Description
The only G major piece among the four Duetti, bright and flowing, in two voices. It is the third of them in Clavier-Übung III, published in 1739; most of the collection is organ music, but the Duetti need no pedal and sit naturally on harpsichord or piano. The four rise in key: E minor, F major, G major and A minor.
It is in G major and 12/8, about four minutes long with 1,364 notes, the most notes of the four. Over a swaying rhythm felt as four beats to the bar, each grouped in threes, the two voices pass the subject between them as equals. In contrast to the chromatic tension of the E minor first duet, it has a bright, flowing sound, though a middle section moves into the minor and turns darker for a while.
It is rated intermediate and calls for the concentration to play nearly four minutes straight through. The task is to keep the four broad beats of 12/8 flowing while keeping the running notes in both hands even. Its notes stay between D2 and C6, within 61 keys. Slow the playback and follow the hand colours to see the subject handed over, and use the A-B loop section by section to build up even a long piece a little at a time.
Two-voice contrapuntal pieces from Part 3 of Bach's Clavier-Übung, blending strict compositional rigor with a lively dialogue between the 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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