Goldberg Variations: Variation 17 (BWV 988)
Johann Sebastian Bach · Level 6 (Expert) · Baroque · Piano
A virtuoso variation for two manuals: broken thirds and sixths in sixteenth notes, with the hands crossing and answering each other. From the Goldberg Variations BWV 988 (1741), an aria followed by thirty variations on the same bass. G major, 3/4, 32 bars (about one minute), complete score.
▶ Play this piece with the interactive score
How to practise it
- Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
- Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
- Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
- Written for two manuals, on the piano it requires careful planning of the hand crossings: practise each hand alone, then find where they overlap. Fast writing: work section by section in Wait mode, then in dotted rhythms, and raise the tempo in steps of 5–10%.
More pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach
- Partita 4 (BWV 828) — movement 6
- Aus meines Herzens Grunde (Chorale 1) (BWV 269)
- Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C major (BWV 772)
- Prelude No. 1 in C major, Well-Tempered Clavier I (BWV 846)
- Two-Part Invention No. 13 in A minor (BWV 784)
- Two-Part Invention No. 8 in F major (BWV 779)
- Little Prelude in F major (BWV 928)
- Two-Part Invention No. 4 in D minor (BWV 775)
Source : PDMX / MuseScore · CC0 1.0