Little Prelude in E major (BWV 937)

Johann Sebastian Bach · Level 4 (Intermediate) · Baroque · Piano

The fifth of the Six Little Preludes BWV 933–938: a right hand in calm eighth notes above a left hand unrolling broken sixteenth-note figures. One of the little preludes Bach wrote around 1720 for his pupils, handed down mainly in copies by his circle (Johann Peter Kellner): short pieces, ideal before tackling the Inventions. E major, 4/4, 20 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.
• The many accidental E sharps and D sharps need attention: first practise the left hand alone, slowly, naming the accidentals. No pedal: legato comes from the fingers. Practise hands separately in Wait mode, then put them together slowly. Key signature with 4 sharps: name them aloud before playing and spot the places where accidentals cancel them. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment.

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 : Mutopia Project · CC BY-SA 3.0