List of keyboard and lute compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

Keyboard and Lute Works is the topic of the fifth series of the New Bach Edition.[1]

Keyboard Works (Klavierwerke) by Johann Sebastian Bach traditionally refers to the Nos. 772 to 994, Chapter 8 in the BWV catalogue, listing compositions for a solo keyboard instrument like the harpsichord or the clavichord. Despite the fact that organ is also a keyboard instrument, and that in Bach's time the distinction wasn't always made whether a keyboard composition was for organ or another keyboard instrument, Wolfgang Schmieder ranged organ compositions in a separate section of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Nos. 525-771). Also other compositions for keyboard, like compositions for lute-harpsichord and fortepiano were listed outside the "Klavierwerke" range by Schmieder. Lute works are in the range 995–1000, Chapter 9 in the BWV catalogue.[2]

Bach was a prodigious talent at the keyboard, well known during his lifetime for both his technical and improvisational abilities.[3] Many of Bach's keyboard works started out as improvisations. Bach wrote widely for the harpsichord, producing numerous inventions, suites, fugues, partitas, overtures, as well as keyboard arrangements of concerto music by his contemporaries. The fortepiano is an instrument Bach would have encountered once, by the end of his life when it was recently invented, while visiting his son in Potsdam. The visit resulted in Das Musikalische Opfer, parts of which may have been intended for the new instrument.

Several of Bach's works for keyboard were published in print in his own lifetime. Four such publications were given the name Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice) by the composer. Bach was not the first to use that name, for example Bach's Leipzig predecessor Johann Kuhnau had used it for two volumes published in the late 17th century. The first volume, Bach's Opus 1, was published in 1731, while the last was published a decade later. The first, second and last volume contain music written for harpsichord, while the third was mainly intended for performance on the organ, only four duets contained in that volume ending up in the BWV 772–994 range.

The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of forty-eight Preludes and Fugues, was not printed until half a century after Bach's death, although it had circulated in manuscript form before that. Before the extensive rediscovery of his works in the nineteenth century, Bach was known almost exclusively through his music for the keyboard, in particular his highly influential Well-Tempered Clavier, which were regularly assigned as part of musicians' training. Composers and performers such as Ludwig van Beethoven and Camille Saint-Saëns first showed off their skills as child prodigies playing the entire cycle of Bach's forty-eight Preludes and Fugues.

Modern composers have continued to draw inspiration from Bach's keyboard output. Dmitri Shostakovich, for example, wrote his own set of Preludes and Fugues after the Bach model. Jazz musicians and composers, in particular, have been drawn to the contrapuntal style, harmonic expansion and rhythmic expression of Bach's compositions, especially the works for keyboard.

The first section below lists all compositions in the BWV 772–994 range, then follows a section listing other compositions for non-organ keyboard instruments, as well compositions for a single keyboard instrument as compositions with a soloist role for the keyboard, alone or among other soloists. This includes keyboard concertos, but also sonatas where the keyboard is not part of the basso continuo but a cembalo obbligato.

After the composer's death most of his keyboard compositions, and many others, are, or were, often performed on the piano, played either directly from a score for the instruments as the composer knew them, or from a score that was a transcription for piano. The latter is sometimes needed even for harpsichord scores while for instance a composition intended for a two-manual harpsichord (like the Goldberg Variations) can present difficulties for the crossing of hands when performed on a single-keyboard instrument like the piano. Some of the transposers/arrangers of Bach's work added their own inspiration, like Busoni in his arrangement and expansion of Bach's Chromatische Fantasie und Fuge, BWV 903. The third section of this list refers to such transcriptions and arrangements for the piano.

Works for keyboard (BWV 772–994)

Inventions and Sinfonias (772–801)

Four Duets from Clavier-Übung III (802–805)

English Suites (806–811)

French Suites (812–817)

Miscellaneous suites (818–824)

Partitas for keyboard (published as Clavier-Übung I) (825–830)

French Overture, from Clavier-Übung II (831)

Suites and suite movements (832–845)

The Well-Tempered Clavier (846–893)

Preludes and fugues, toccatas and fantasias (894–923)

Fantasy in C minor, BWV 906
Performed by Martha Goldstein

Toccata in D major, BWV 912
Performed on a piano by Randolph Hokanson

Praeludium in A minor, BWV 922
Performed by Sylvia Kind

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Little Preludes from Clavier-Büchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (924–932)

Six Little Preludes (933–938)

Five Preludes from the collection of Johann Peter Kellner (939–943)

Prelude in C major, BWV 939
Performed on a harpsichord by Gérard Janot

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Fugues and fughettas (944–962)

Sonatas and sonata movements (963–970)

Italian Concerto, from Clavier-Übung II (971)

Keyboard arrangements of concerti by other composers (972–987)

Concerto in D major, BWV 972 – 2. Largo
Performed on a harpsichord by Gérard Janot

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Variations and miscellaneous pieces for keyboard (988–994)

Works for solo lute (BWV 995–1000)

Other keyboard and lute compositions

Concerti for solo organ (BWV 592–598)

Works for solo lute (BWV 995–1000)

Works for violin and keyboard instrument (BWV 1014–1026)

Sonatas for viola da gamba and keyboard instrument (BWV 1027–1029)

Sonatas for flute and keyboard instrument (BWV 1030–1035)

Trio sonatas (BWV 1036–1040)

Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046–1051)

Further information: Brandenburg Concertos

Keyboard concertos (BWV 1052–1065)

Canons (BWV 1072–1078)

Late contrapuntal works (BWV 1079–1080)

Spurious and doubtful works in Anna Magdalena's Notebooks (BWV Anh. 113–132)

Piano transcriptions

References

  1. Series V: Keyboard and Lute Works at the Bärenreiter website
  2. (BWV2a) Alfred Dürr, Yoshitake Kobayashi (eds.), Kirsten Beißwenger. Bach Werke Verzeichnis: Kleine Ausgabe, nach der von Wolfgang Schmieder vorgelegten 2. Ausgabe. Preface in English and German. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1998. ISBN 3765102490 - ISBN 978-3765102493
  3. "Nekrolog" of Johann Sebastian Bach by Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach and Johann Friedrich Agricola, in Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek, Volume 4. Leipzig, 1754. pp. 163-165
  4. Bach Digital Work No. 1005 at www.bachdigital.de
  5. Fantasia and fugue, a BWV 944 at www.bach-digital.de
  6. Talbot, Michael (2011). The Vivaldi Compendium. Boydell Press. p. 54. ISBN 9781843836704.
  7. 1 2 Ripin, Edwin M., and Wraight, Denzil. "Lute-harpsichord". In Macy, Laura. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)

External links

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