Prelude in G minor
BWV 930 performed by Guillermo González García
Maltezerhuis, Utrecht
Behind the music
Story
Story
Credits
Credits
Teaching material
Bach used this simple prelude to train his eldest son in keyboard playing
Bach is one of the most celebrated composers of all time, but during his lifetime he was also an outstanding teacher. Possibly his best pupils were his wife and children, for whom he wrote a number of Klavierbüchlein, exercise books, containing short pedagogic tips and simple practice pieces. By following them, his family learnt not only to play the keyboard, but also the ins and outs of music theory and composition. Bach thus carried on the tradition of his musical family, as he himself had been taught by his elder brother Johann Christoph.
In 1720, when Bach’s eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann was ten, his father wrote the first teaching method we know for him. The Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann is still regarded as one of the classics of the pedagogic genre and is popular with piano teachers who want to introduce children to Bach’s work. The book includes over sixty pieces, arranged in order of difficulty, going from the simple Applicatio in C major, BWV 994, to the relatively challenging three-part Sinfonias. Most of them are written by Bach, although some are by other composers and some even by Friedemann himself. It is clear he had already made considerable progress by the time he started on this book.
As number nine in the series, this introspective Prelude in G minor, BWV 930, is still fairly easy. The piece was probably composed by Bach, although there are also suggestions it may have been written by Friedemann. The construction is simple: first a musical phrase takes us to a different key, and then another brings us back again. Both phrases are repeated. The music is built up of two parts, which frequently imitate one another. Account has clearly been taken of the beginner, as at some moments only one part is active. The bass part is full of big octave leaps, which is easy for adults but probably still challenging for Friedemann. The harmonies are also relatively simple, although there are occasional glimmers of a richer world. The piece is known to musicologists for its fingerings, which are annotated by father Bach himself. They are very different to the fingerings normally used by musicians today.
Young talent
Once every two or three years, the Netherlands Bach Society organises a talent development project for gifted young musicians under the age of 18. The projects, which focus on the performance practice of Bach’s music, allows us to bring talented youngsters into contact with historical performance practice and give them deeper insight into Bach’s music. In this project, we worked with keyboardists of the future. Seven very talented international youngsters between twelve and eighteen years old were selected from auditions to take two masterclasses about Bach, the harpsichord and baroque playing techniques and styles, given by Siebe Henstra. Each keyboardist rehearsed movements from the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, including the Nine Little Preludes, BWV 924-932, which Bach wrote to use in lessons with his son Wilhelm Friedemann. The rehearsed works were recorded for All of Bach in October 2024, at the Maltezerhuis in Utrecht.
- BWV
- 930
- Title
- Prelude in G minor
- Instrument
- harpsichord
- Genre
- harpsichord works
- Serie
- Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
- Year
- ca. 1720-1722
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
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- Release date
- 6 March 2025
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- Recording date
- 16 October 2024
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- Location
- Maltezerhuis, Utrecht
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- Harpsichord
- Guillermo González García
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- Instrument
- Titus Crijnen, 1992 after Johannes Ruckers, 1638
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- Director and camera
- Robin van Erven-Dorens
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Pim van der Lee
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- Music recording, edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Martijn van Beenen
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- Lights
- Ernst-Jan Thieme
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- Data handling
- Brechtje van Riel
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Producer
- Lisanne Marlou de Kok
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