Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) c. 1725 D major 2/4 Easy 0:34 Both hands
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The Musette in D is the piece that sounds like a village band: the left hand thumps out a drone on D, low and high, like the bagpipe the dance is named after, while the right hand dances above it. This page has the whole piece, both hands as printed in the Bach-Gesellschaft edition, with the first part played again at the end, as the da capo asks. The first part stays in D major; the middle part moves to A major and E, with a few sharps to watch. It is short, cheerful, and perfect for learning octave jumps in the left hand. Start slowly in Practice mode.
The first part: a long A, then G F sharp E D, twice; F sharp G A G F sharp, E A F sharp D. The middle part runs C sharp D E, jumps between A and E, and swings between high and low E with a D sharp and a G sharp, before the first part comes back.
Octaves on D in bars 1, 2, 5 and 6: the low D on the beat, the D above on the half beat, like a drone; in between, the left hand doubles the tune an octave lower. The middle part does the same on A, then on E, before a short line E D C sharp D closes it.
Bars 13 to 17: the right hand plays E, D sharp, the E an octave lower, then D natural, and the next bar starts on D natural again. Practise these bars hands separately and say the sharps aloud.
Left hand: 5 on the low D and 1 on the high D, keeping the hand open in the octave shape. Right hand: A G F sharp E D with 5-4-3-2-1, the long A with 5.
The right-hand melody of this version, bar by bar, in letter names and in Do Ré Mi. Sharps are written #, flats b; a note held across a bar line is written once.
Melody: A G F# E D A G F# E D F# G A G F# E A F# D A G F# E D …
| Bar | Notes | Do Ré Mi |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A G F# E D | La Sol Fa# Mi Ré |
| 2 | A G F# E D | La Sol Fa# Mi Ré |
| 3 | F# G A G F# | Fa# Sol La Sol Fa# |
| 4 | E A F# D | Mi La Fa# Ré |
| 5 | A G F# E D | La Sol Fa# Mi Ré |
| 6 | A G F# E D | La Sol Fa# Mi Ré |
| 7 | F# G A G F# | Fa# Sol La Sol Fa# |
| 8 | E A D | Mi La Ré |
| 9 | C# D E C# D E | Do# Ré Mi Do# Ré Mi |
| 10 | A E E | La Mi Mi |
| 11 | A E A E | La Mi La Mi |
| 12 | D C# B A B E | Ré Do# Si La Si Mi |
| 13 | E D# E D | Mi Ré# Mi Ré |
| 14 | D C# A G# | Ré Do# La Sol# |
| 15 | E D# E D | Mi Ré# Mi Ré |
| 16 | D C# A G# | Ré Do# La Sol# |
| 17 | E D# C# D# E D# C# D# | Mi Ré# Do# Ré# Mi Ré# Do# Ré# |
| 18 | E G# A D | Mi Sol# La Ré |
| 19 | C# D E A D | Do# Ré Mi La Ré |
| 20 | C# D E A | Do# Ré Mi La |
| 21 | A G F# E D | La Sol Fa# Mi Ré |
| 22 | A G F# E D | La Sol Fa# Mi Ré |
| 23 | F# G A G F# | Fa# Sol La Sol Fa# |
| 24 | E A F# D | Mi La Fa# Ré |
| 25 | A G F# E D | La Sol Fa# Mi Ré |
| 26 | A G F# E D | La Sol Fa# Mi Ré |
| 27 | F# G A G F# | Fa# Sol La Sol Fa# |
| 28 | E A D | Mi La Ré |
The chords this arrangement holds for at least two bars, read from the score with the root in the bass. Each one opens its page: the notes, every inversion and the fingering, playable on a piano.
The piece is in D major: all the chords of the key
A musette is a small French bagpipe, fashionable at court in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the musette dance imitates it: a melody over a bass that never moves. Composers wrote musettes for harpsichord, often as the middle part of a gavotte.
This one was copied into the 1725 notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach, the collection of household music that also holds the Minuets in G and G minor. The copy names no composer, so the Bach catalogue lists it in its appendix, BWV Anh. 126, among the pieces attributed to Bach.
This transcription: Musette in D, BWV Anh. 126, from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach (1725), Bach-Gesellschaft edition: Mutopia Project no. 79, typeset by Allen Garvin, placed in the public domain; complete, with the da capo of the first part written out. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.
Easy Version · G major
Complete, BWV Anh. 115 · G minor
Complete, Mozart K. 2 · F major
First Section, Burgmüller Op. 100 No. 5 · F majorThe full piano studio opens this score with your MIDI keyboard and sustain pedal, records what you play and exports it as a MIDI file. It comes with the GOONS Studio subscription - start with the 7-day free trial, no card required.
A musette is a French bagpipe, and a musette is also a dance that imitates it, with a melody over a drone bass that stays on one note. In this piece the drone is the left hand's octave on D.
Nobody knows for sure. It is in the 1725 notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach, but the copy names no composer, so the Bach catalogue lists it among the attributed pieces, as BWV Anh. 126.
Yes, after a few months of piano: level 2 of 5. The right hand stays close to five notes in the first part, and the left hand repeats the same octave, which is a good first octave exercise.