List of keyboard and lute compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach


Keyboard and Lute Works is the topic of the fifth series of the New Bach Edition.
Keyboard Works by Johann Sebastian Bach traditionally refers to the Nos. 772 to 994, Chapter 8 in the BWV catalogue, listing compositions for a solo keyboard instrument like the harpsichord or the clavichord. Despite the fact that organ is also a keyboard instrument, and that in Bach's time the distinction wasn't always made whether a keyboard composition was for organ or another keyboard instrument, Wolfgang Schmieder ranged organ compositions in a separate section of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis. Also other compositions for keyboard, like compositions for lute-harpsichord and fortepiano were listed outside the "Klavierwerke" range by Schmieder. Lute works are in the range 995–1000, Chapter 9 in the BWV catalogue.
Bach was a prodigious talent at the keyboard, well known during his lifetime for both his technical and improvisational abilities. Many of Bach's keyboard works started out as improvisations. Bach wrote widely for the harpsichord, producing numerous inventions, suites, fugues, partitas, overtures, as well as keyboard arrangements of concerto music by his contemporaries. The fortepiano is an instrument Bach would have encountered once, by the end of his life when it was recently invented, while visiting his son in Potsdam. The visit resulted in Das Musikalische Opfer, parts of which may have been intended for the new instrument.
Several of Bach's works for keyboard were published in print in his own lifetime. Four such publications were given the name Clavier-Übung by the composer. Bach was not the first to use that name, for example Bach's Leipzig predecessor Johann Kuhnau had used it for two volumes published in the late 17th century. The first volume, Bach's Opus 1, was published in 1731, while the last was published a decade later. The first, second and last volume contain music written for harpsichord, while the third was written for the organ, only four duets contained in that volume ending up in the BWV 772–994 range.
The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of forty-eight Preludes and Fugues, was not printed until half a century after Bach's death, although it had circulated in manuscript form before that. Before the extensive rediscovery of his works in the nineteenth century, Bach was known almost exclusively through his music for the keyboard, in particular his highly influential Well-Tempered Clavier, which were regularly assigned as part of musicians' training. Composers and performers such as Ludwig van Beethoven and Camille Saint-Saëns first showed off their skills as child prodigies playing the entire cycle of Bach's forty-eight Preludes and Fugues.
Modern composers have continued to draw inspiration from Bach's keyboard output. Dmitri Shostakovich, for example, wrote his own set of Preludes and Fugues after the Bach model. Jazz musicians and composers, in particular, have been drawn to the contrapuntal style, harmonic expansion and rhythmic expression of Bach's compositions, especially the works for keyboard.
The first section below lists all compositions in the BWV 772–994 range, then follows a section listing other compositions for keyboard instruments, excluding the organ.
After the composer's death most of his keyboard compositions, and many others, are, or were, often performed on the piano, played either directly from a score for the instruments as the composer knew them, or from a score that was a transcription for piano. The latter is sometimes needed even for harpsichord scores while for instance a composition intended for a two-manual harpsichord can present difficulties for the crossing of hands when performed on a single-keyboard instrument like the piano. Some of the transposers/arrangers of Bach's work added their own inspiration, like Busoni in his. The fourth section of this list refers to such transcriptions and arrangements for the piano.

Works for keyboard (BWV 772–994)

[Inventions and Sinfonias] (772–801)

Indicated as "Neun kleine Präludien aus dem Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach" in the Bach-Werke Verzeichnis:
  1. BWV 924 – Prelude in C major
BWV 924a – Prelude in C major
  1. BWV 925 – Prelude in D major
  2. BWV 926 – Prelude in D minor
  3. BWV 927 – Prelude in F major
  4. BWV 928 – Prelude in F major
  5. BWV 929 – Prelude in G minor
  6. BWV 930 – Prelude in G minor
  7. BWV 931 – Prelude in A minor
  8. BWV 932 – Prelude in E minor

    Six Little Preludes (933–938)

An 18th-century set of short preludes by Johann Sebastian Bach:
  1. BWV 933 – Little Prelude in C major
  2. BWV 934 – Little Prelude in C minor
  3. BWV 935 – Little Prelude in D minor
  4. BWV 936 – Little Prelude in D major
  5. BWV 937 – Little Prelude in E major
  6. BWV 938 – Little Prelude in E minor

    Johann Peter Kellner (939–943)">Five Little Preludes (939–943)

Five short preludes found in the manuscript P 804 :
  1. BWV 939 – Prelude in C major
  2. BWV 940 – Prelude in D minor
  3. BWV 941 – Prelude in E minor
  4. BWV 942 – Prelude in A minor
  5. BWV 943 – Prelude in C major

    Fugues and fughettas (944–962)

Other keyboard and lute compositions

Canons (BWV 1072–1078)

Late contrapuntal works (BWV 1079–1080)

  • BWV 1079 – The Musical Offering – some pieces intended for fortepiano
  • BWV 1080 – The Art of Fugue - some pieces indicated as being for a two-manual harpsichord

    Spurious and doubtful works in Anna Magdalena's Notebooks (BWV Anh. 113–132)

Piano transcriptions