Description
Titled in Italian as Corrente rather than the French Courante, this G major movement in 3/8 is a fast-flowing dance of the Italian type, following the Allemande in Partita No. 5, BWV 829. After the measured Allemande it brings momentum into the suite, and it sets off the stillness of the Sarabande that follows.
Small triple units move quickly, and quick notes flow without a break. The line passes between the hands, and the movement is in binary form, each half repeated. The range, like the Allemande's, is wide, from G1 to D6, with 562 notes in about 97 seconds.
It is an advanced piece in which the result depends on connecting the exchanges between the hands smoothly at speed and keeping a steady sense of tempo to the end. Feeling each bar of 3/8 as one beat creates forward motion. Slow the playback speed to check the exchanges through the hand colours, repeat the passages where the fingers tangle with the A-B loop, then gradually bring the speed back.
Suite-form works from the Baroque era; Bach's Partitas, a sequence of varied dances, are ranked among the greatest keyboard works.
Browse all songs in Partitas →Sheet Music
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.
View all works by Bach →