Little Prelude BWV 999

The Anacrouse collection offers pianists, beginners and advanced alike, a wide choice of classical works from the Renaissance to the present day. It brings together major works of the repertoire as well as rarer pieces, and also offers transcriptions for piano solo or four hands, selected for their musical and educational interest. Each score, available individually, benefits from careful editorial work: a rigorously established musical text, clear and legible engraving, accompanied by a short biography of the composer and a note on the work.

The “Little Prelude in C minor, BWV 999” is one of the most emblematic study pieces of the Baroque period. Built on a movement of broken arpeggios in the right hand over a sober bass, it is the perfect pedagogical tool for working on finger regularity, finger independence and harmonic direction. Its dark key and contemplative character allow the student to approach expressiveness with a fascinating economy of means.

Although it is today a pillar of the piano repertoire, Johann Sebastian Bach originally composed this prelude for the lute, around 1720. This origin explains the writing in broken chords reminiscent of plucked strings. The manuscript of this piece has come down to us only thanks to a copy made by one of his students, Johann Peter Kellner, thus saving this masterpiece of concision from oblivion.