PlayPiano
The short answer
An A-minor minuet with a notebook witness and an unresolved author. Minuet in A minor, BWV Anh. 120 is a minuet from the Baroque era. PlayPiano puts it at Level 3, an estimate.
- minuet
- Baroque
- dancing
- melancholic
- hand independence
- ornaments
- voicing
History
This piece survives in the second notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, associated with 1725 and held in Berlin as Mus. ms. Bach P 225. The notebook provides a historical home for the music, not proof that Johann Sebastian Bach composed every piece inside it. The selected catalogue leaves this work's composer unresolved. The Mutopia source identifies a Bach-Gesellschaft volume published in 1894, but that reference volume is not established as the piece's first publication.
Sources
What to listen for
One line answers another
The upper voice begins the dotted-note idea; the lower voice follows one bar later. Practise singing each line so the answering entry stays clear when both hands play.
Hear the bass descend
Repeated bass notes move down step by step while the upper voice continues its phrase. Listen to this slow-changing foundation rather than treating every repeated note as a new accent.
A brighter answer
The next section restarts the dotted-note idea at a new pitch level. Again the lower voice follows the upper one. Recognise the familiar pattern while hearing its changed colour.
Decorations in both voices
Trills now appear in the upper line and later in the lower line. Keep the pulse steady and make each ornament part of its own phrase.
A final release
The upper line decorates its penultimate held note before both voices settle on A. Allow the final long notes to close the dance without rushing the release.
How to practise it
Imitative entries; held notes against a new phrase
- Imitative entries
- Held notes against a new phrase
How hard is it
The early two-hand target prioritizes a clear dance pulse and connected phrase direction with supportive balance.
About this piece
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Source
- mutopiaproject.org
