Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) never wrote for the modern piano. His keyboard music was meant for the harpsichord, the clavichord and the organ, but it sounds wonderful on a piano and is at the heart of almost every pianist’s training.
Here are 12 of the greatest Bach keyboard works to play or listen to, from beginner pieces to the Goldberg Variations, plus a couple of famous pieces that pianists borrowed from other instruments.
The short version
If you only explore three, start with the Goldberg Variations, the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Italian Concerto. If you are learning to play, the Two-Part Inventions are the classic way in.
1. Minuet in G major, BWV Anh. 114
Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725
Start with: “Minuet in G major, BWV Anh. 114”Actually by Christian Petzold
This is one of the first “Bach” pieces many piano students learn, with a simple, graceful tune and clear two-part writing. It comes from the notebook of keyboard music Bach gave his second wife, Anna Magdalena, in 1725.
There is a twist. Scholars now know the minuet was written by the Dresden organist Christian Petzold, a musician Bach knew, and copied into the family notebook. It still appears in many Bach collections for beginners, and in 1965 it became the pop hit “A Lover’s Concerto”.
Listen on SpotifyApple MusicRelated: Johann Sebastian Bach: 13 interesting facts
2. Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Organ · First published 1833
Start with: “Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565”Heard in Fantasia
Strictly this is an organ piece, often called the most famous organ work in existence, and pianists have played it in transcription since the 19th century. The dramatic opening flourish has become shorthand for horror and Halloween.
It was first published in 1833, thanks to Felix Mendelssohn, and its fame grew after Leopold Stokowski’s orchestral version opened Disney’s Fantasia in 1940. Since 1981 a minority of scholars have questioned whether Bach really wrote it.
3. Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Published 1741
Start with: “Aria from the Goldberg Variations”Aria and 30 variations
The Goldberg Variations are an aria followed by 30 variations, published in 1741. Some variations are gentle, others are dazzling, and every third one is a canon. Playing the whole set is one of the great tests for any pianist.
According to Bach’s early biographer Forkel, they were written for Count Keyserlingk, who suffered from insomnia and had his young harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg play to him at night. Glenn Gould’s 1955 recording made them famous with a new generation of listeners.
Listen on SpotifyApple MusicRelated: 10 famous examples of canons in music
4. Italian Concerto, BWV 971
Published 1735
Start with: “Italian Concerto, third movement (Presto)”
Bach called it a “concerto in the Italian taste”, but it is for one player. Written for a two-manual harpsichord, it uses the instrument’s loud and soft keyboards to imitate the back-and-forth between orchestra and soloist in an Italian concerto.
It was published in 1735 in the second volume of his Clavier-Übung, paired with the French Overture. There are three movements: two lively outer movements in F major around a slow, singing Andante in D minor. The closing Presto barely stops for breath.
Listen on SpotifyApple MusicRelated: What is a concerto in music?
5. French Suite No. 2 in C minor, BWV 813
c. 1722
Start with: “French Suite No. 2: Allemande”
Bach wrote six French Suites for harpsichord or clavichord between about 1722 and 1725. Each is a chain of Baroque dances, opening with an allemande and a courante and ending with a lively gigue.
The name “French” wasn’t Bach’s. It was added after his death, and the suites actually follow a largely Italian style. The second suite, in C minor, is one of the most popular, with a flowing allemande, a stately sarabande and a brisk closing gigue.
6. Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C minor, BWV 847
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 · 1722
Start with: “Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 847”Every major and minor key
The Well-Tempered Clavier is a set of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys. Bach compiled Book 1 in 1722 “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning”, and added Book 2 twenty years later.
The C minor pair is one of the best known. The prelude is a fast, driving study in constant running notes, and the three-voice fugue that follows has a catchy, dance-like subject, a perfect first fugue for many pianists.
Listen on SpotifyApple MusicRelated: What is a fugue? A complete guide
7. Air on the G String
Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068
Start with: “Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3”
Like the Toccata, this isn’t a keyboard piece, but piano arrangements of it are everywhere. It is the slow second movement of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3, a long, calm melody over a steadily walking bass.
The nickname comes from the violinist August Wilhelmj, who arranged it in 1871 so the whole tune could be played on the violin’s lowest string, the G string. It has since turned up in films such as The Spy Who Loved Me and Se7en, and at countless weddings.
8. Concerto in D minor, BWV 974 (after Marcello)
Weimar, c. 1713–1714
Start with: “Concerto in D minor, BWV 974: Adagio”
In Weimar, Bach arranged a series of Italian concertos for solo keyboard, many of them by Vivaldi. This one is his transcription of an oboe concerto by the Venetian composer Alessandro Marcello, made around 1713 to 1714.
The slow middle movement is the reason to hear it: a long, ornamented melody over gently repeated chords, as tender as anything Bach wrote. In the 19th century the arrangement was even published as a work by Vivaldi.
Listen on SpotifyApple MusicRelated: Antonio Vivaldi: 11 interesting facts
9. Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052
Leipzig, c. 1738
Start with: “Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052”One of the first keyboard concertos
Bach’s concertos for harpsichord and strings are among the first concertos for a keyboard instrument ever written. In Leipzig he directed the Collegium Musicum, a society that gave weekly concerts at Café Zimmermann, and these works were part of that world.
The D minor is the grandest of them, with fierce unison openings, a brooding slow movement built over a repeated bass line and a virtuosic finale. Like most of these concertos, it was adapted from an earlier work, and scholars still debate whether that lost original was for violin or for organ.
10. Invention No. 1 in C major, BWV 772
Inventions and Sinfonias · 1723
Start with: “Invention No. 1 in C major, BWV 772”
Bach wrote his 15 two-part inventions as exercises, first in a keyboard book for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, and then in a fair copy dated 1723. His title page says they show students how “to play two voices clearly” and to develop good musical ideas.
Invention No. 1 is the one most pianists meet first. A short opening idea is passed between the hands, turned upside down and developed, so in under two minutes it teaches the basics of counterpoint.
11. Keyboard Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058
Leipzig, c. 1738
Start with: “Keyboard Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058”
This concerto is Bach’s own arrangement of one of his best-known works, the Violin Concerto in A minor, moved down a step to G minor for harpsichord and strings.
It was the first harpsichord concerto he entered into his manuscript of these works, around 1738, and it is a fairly direct adaptation, so it is fascinating to hear side by side with the violin version. It sounds just as good on a modern piano.
12. Sinfonia No. 1 in C major, BWV 787
Inventions and Sinfonias · 1723
Start with: “Sinfonia No. 1 in C major, BWV 787”
Once students had mastered two voices, Bach’s next step was three. His 15 sinfonias, sometimes called the three-part inventions, sit alongside the inventions in the same 1723 collection.
Sinfonia No. 1 is short and quick, with the opening idea passing between three independent lines. Keeping all three clear at once is the challenge, and it is good preparation for the fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier.
Which Bach keyboard work is your favorite?
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Summing up
Bach’s keyboard music covers everything from a beginner’s first minuet to the Goldberg Variations, and almost all of it was written to teach as well as to delight. That is why pianists keep coming back to it at every stage.
Which Bach keyboard piece would you add to the list?
