Prelude No. 19 in A major, Well-Tempered Clavier I (BWV 864)

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

A bright, dancing three-voice prelude in 3/4, built like a three-part invention on a sixteenth-note motif. From the Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I, 1722), preludes and fugues in all twenty-four keys. A major, 4/4, 24 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 three voices are equal: find the motif in each one, and hold the long notes of the lower voice under the sixteenths. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. 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