Prelude No. 21 in B♭ major, Well-Tempered Clavier I (BWV 866)

Johann Sebastian Bach · Level 5 (Advanced) · Baroque · Piano

A brilliant prelude in the spirit of a toccata: fast runs shared between the hands, then block chords and arpeggios sweeping across the keyboard. From the Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I, 1722), preludes and fugues in all twenty-four keys. B♭ 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 runs pass from one hand to the other: practise slowly in Wait mode to share the notes correctly, then speed up in steps. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. For chords, shape the hand in the air before landing, all notes together. 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