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The short answer
A lute title survives in keyboard-style notation. Prelude in C minor, BWV 999 is a prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach from the Baroque era. PlayPiano puts it at Level 5, an estimate.
- prelude
- Baroque
- gentle
History
Bach Digital identifies the sole BWV 999 witness as Johann Peter Kellner's copy, titled for lute but written in two keyboard-style systems. Its work record gives an earliest copy after 1727; the source record also preserves a competing mid-1720s dating. This is a transmission puzzle, not a settled composition date.
Sources
What to listen for
Broken-note groups form the opening texture
Hear the paired pitch groups as a continuing pattern rather than separate chord attacks.
Changing groups expand the register
The texture changes its pitch material and becomes wider. Follow the larger direction across the small figures.
A new bass supports the last related shapes
The changed lower pitch underlies familiar upper groups. Listen to both layers without treating repeated bass as proof of pedal use.
An expanded gesture reaches the closing chord
The last movement settles into a G-based sonority. Hear the actual ending rather than assuming the title requires a C-minor final chord.
How to practise it
Keep the recurring broken-chord figure even and preserve its small rests.
- Include the opening rest in the pulse.
- Do not blur the later short rests inside the figure.
How hard is it
Recurring broken-chord sixteenths with rests need evenness and clean releases over a separately moving bass. Pattern familiarity helps, but harmonic changes and balance still require attention.
About this piece
- Collection
- The prelude gallery
- Licence
- CC0
- Source
- musescore.com
More by Johann Sebastian Bach
- Prelude in C major, BWV 846Level 4, estimatedOpen to everyone
- Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C major, BWV 772Level 5, estimatedWith Maestro
- Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971: III. PrestoLevel 9, estimatedWith Maestro
