Description
Fast and brilliant, the gigue brings French Suite No. 5 in G major to a close, following the loure. The gigue comes from a fast dance of England and Ireland, and Bach often wrote it in fugue-like imitation; this is one of the best known of his suite gigues.
It is in G major and 12/16, about two minutes fifty seconds long with 1,142 notes, the largest movement of the suite. Over a fast rhythm felt as four beats to the bar, each grouped in threes, it proceeds in fugal writing, one voice taking up the subject another has just stated. In the second half the subject is turned upside down, mirroring the first half.
It is rated intermediate, but its length and speed test finger independence and stamina. The task is to feel the four broad beats of 12/16 and carry the quick notes lightly in groups of three. Even this largest movement stays between D2 and C6, within reach of a 61-key keyboard. Slow the playback and follow the subject between the hands with the hand colours, and loop passages containing an entry with the A-B loop to balance the imitative structure with the movement's drive.
Six keyboard suites by Bach that elegantly incorporate Baroque dance forms.
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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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