Prelude no 4 in C-sharp minor, BWV 849

About this work

The fourth prelude establishes a much broader sense of time. Appoggiaturas, suspensions and dissonances delay each resolution; played as simple ornaments, they lose the phrase's tension. The bass moves in measured steps while the upper voices rub against one another and then subside.

Before seeking a beautiful sound, locate the notes that continue from one chord to the next. They form the framework of the legato and prevent the pedal from blurring the harmony. Ornaments must arise within the pulse, with a clear arrival on the principal note. Listen above all to the moment when the dissonance resolves: that is what gives the bar its weight.

Directing the slow line

First reduce each bar to its bass and essential chord. Then play the complete text while keeping this progression in your ear. Breathe at the cadences without allowing the tempo to collapse. To balance the hands, record a short section: the melody must remain present, while the inner notes retain their own direction.

About this edition


Scoring: a slow piece for solo keyboard, distributed across two staves.
Files: the PDF has two pages; the MIDI follows 39 bars and contains 700 attacks.
Source and rights: Bach's music is in the public domain. The LilyPond source prepared by Knute Snortum may be reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. LesPartitions.info checked the agreement of the pitches, prepared the internal sources, added its backlink to both pages and devised this reading method.