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Bach Chorales for Piano (selection of 40, sheet music, Noten) and why are they important to learn
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It is the chorales, not his trademark fugues, that lie at the heart of Bach’s technique. Wolff refers to Bach’s collection of 370 four-part chorales that charted the course for tonal harmony. Donald Francis Tovey observes: Counterpoint, the art defined by Sir Fr ederick Gore Ouseley as that of ’combining melodies’. . . This definition is not quite complete. Classical counterpoint is the conveying of a mass of harmony by means of a combination of melodies.
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Thus, the three melodies combined by Wagner in the Meistersinger prelude do not make classical counterpoint, for they require a mass of accompanying harmony to explain them. Forkel recounts, in Ernest Newman’s translation: Bach began teaching composition not with dry counterpoint that led nowhere, as was the way with other music teachers of his time ; . . . He went immediately to pure four-part thorough-bass, laying much stress on the setting-out of the voices, since in this way the conception of the pure progression of the harmony was made most intelligible. From there he went to the chorale. In these exercises he himself set the original bass, and made his pupils add only the alto and the tenor.
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Gradually he let them make the bass also. Everywhere he insisted not only on the utmost purity of the harmony in itself, but also on naturalness of progression and a melodic flow of all the separate voices. Bach, in other words, based his technique at the frontier between voice-leading and harmony; on how voice-leading should be done to create harmony. The importance of this approach is that it is not limited to Bach’s voice-leading rules, or harmonic style.
The forty chorales offered here transcribed for keyboard are a small selection from the 388 Bach has left us. The selection is arbitrary, determined largely by easy page-layout when in alphabetical order, and biased towards the grander settings and the stand-alone chorales independent of cantatas.
The words are mostly omitted for space reasons, though they do determine many details of melodic gesture or harmonic movement.
Musically there is so much of interest here; the chromaticism of Es ist genug will reappear in Berg’s violin concerto, the extravagant voice-crossings in Christum wir sollen loben schon. The two-and-a-half-bar phrases of Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele and the fivebar phrases of Uns ist ein Kindlein heut geborn, the lovely tune and fluent bass-line of Sollt ich meinem Gott nicht singen, and much else.
These pieces can be used for a variety of musicianship exercises, such as keyboard sigh treading practice, singing one voice and playing the other three, transposed sight-reading, and so on. For this reason, apart from the easily-printable pdf format, these pieces are also available in manuscript format so that you can generate, for example, midi versions for dictation, or soprano-bass-only versions for voice-leading practice, etc.
Bach Forty Chorales Arr. For Piano Solo by Peter Billam
BWV 26 Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig 4
BWV 262 Alle menschen müssen sterben 4
BWV 104 Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr 5
BWV 4 Christ lag in Todesbänden 5
BWV 274 Christe, der du bist Tag und Licht 6
BWV 121 Christum wir sollen loben schon 6
BWV 288 Das alte Jahr vergangen ist 7
BWV 18 Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt 7
BWV 303 Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott 8
BWV 43 Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist 8
BWV 145 Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag 9
BWV 306 Erstanden ist der heilige Christ 9
BWV 155 Es ist das Heil uns kommen her 10
BWV 310 Es wird schier die letzte Tag herkommen 10
BWV 60 Es ist genug 11
BWV 32 Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele 12
BWV 315 Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille 12
BWV 318 Gottes Sohn ist Kommen 13
BWV 330 Herr, ich habe misgehandelt 13
BWV 371 Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit 14
BWV 228 Lobt den Herren, denn er ist sehr freundlich 16
BWV 376 Lobt Gott, ihr Christen allzugleich 16
BWV 245 Machs mit mir, Gott, nach deiner Güt 17
BWV 378 Mein Augen schließ ich jetzt 17
BWV 382 Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin 18
BWV 386 Nun danket alle Gott 18
BWV 387 Nun freut euch, Gottes Kinder all 19
BWV 307 Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gemein 19
BWV 62 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland 19
BWV 390 Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren 20
BWV 396 Nun sich der Tag geendet hat 21
BWV 400 O Herzensangst, o Bangigkeit und Zagen 21
BWV 402 O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß 22
BWV 394 O Welt, ich muß dich lassen 23
BWV 180 Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele 23
BWV 413 Sollt ich meinem Gott nicht singen 24
BWV 414 Uns ist ein Kindlein heut geborn 25
BWV 248 Von Himmel hoch da komm ich her 25
BWV 437 Wir glauben all an einen Gott 26
BWV 178 Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält 27
How to Play the Bach Chorales
Bach’s four-part chorales are among the most beneficial of all styles the pianist can practice.
What are Chorales and Why Practice Them?
J.S. Bach’s four-part (or four-voice) chorales are classical music’s ultimate masterpieces in harmony. Bach composed a total of over 400 chorales, which come from two sources, the C.P.E. Bach Collection and Bach’s approximately 200+ cantatas. A typical church cantata by Bach usually included a chorale as the final movement. Most today would refer to this as a “church hymn,” although Bach’s chorales are typically a bit more harmonically complex than most popular hymns we are familiar with today. All the great composers after Bach — Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, etc. — were thoroughly grounded in the harmonic style perfected and codified by Bach in his chorales. Even though later composers did not always write strictly in four voices as Bach did in his chorales, they nevertheless relied on the voice-leading rules set forth by Bach.
Bach chorales are not piano music per se, but rather vocal music for a choir consisting of four voices: soprano, alto, tenor, bass (SATB). Because chorales are not actual “piano music,” this is most likely the reason they have traditionally been neglected or discounted by traditional piano methods and conservatories.
This is very unfortunate, since Bach chorales serve as the ultimate “litmus test” of the pianist’s overall abilities and skill level. Show me a pianist who can play several Bach chorales fluently and musically on the piano with good fingering and artistic pedaling, as well as the ability to sight-read competently less difficult chorales. And I will show you a pianist who has attained master status. A pianist who can play and sight-read Bach chorales in a musical and artistic fashion is far better prepared for the real-world of classical piano than the pianist who plays predominantly flashy and virtuosic 19th-century études.
It is my opinion that, after playing the piano for 45 years and teaching it for over 30 years, Bach chorales are THE BEST AND MOST BENEFICIAL style the piano student can possibly play. Bach chorales are far superior for the pianist’s complete development than all the Chopin and Liszt études combined. This I believe from the bottom of my heart, and considering that there are currently no quality piano editions of Bach’s chorales available. This is why I am devoting the next few years to transcribing and editing Bach’s chorales for piano.
Steps on Practicing Bach Chorales
- Know the four voices in traditional four-part writing — soprano, alto, tenor, bass (SATB). Virtually all piano methods neglect the teaching of this technique, in which all the great masters even after Bach (Mozart, Beethoven, etc.) were well-grounded. The most beneficial technique a piano student can learn is that of being able to read and play fluently with four voices.
- Learn the two-voice version hands separately with emphasis given to attaining a smooth, legato touch with the fingering provided. No pedal is necessary in this step.
- Learn the two-voice version hands together with the same care given to step #2. It is recommended that beginning to intermediate level students refrain from using pedal in this step; however, advanced pianists are permitted to use the pedal sparingly if done tastefully and artistically.
- Learn the four-voice version hands separately with careful attention given to fingering. Almost never does each hand play two notes, as in a “textbook” example of a chorale, but rather, almost all Bach chorales require at least for part of the chorale three notes in one hand (usually the right) and one note in the other hand (usually the left). Pay close attention to which notes should connect (usually changing notes) or not connect (usually repeated notes and changing notes in which the thumb is repeated).
- Learn the four-voice version hands together with careful attention given to the fingering and with no pedal.
- Add pedal to step #5 — that is, all the “gaps” or “holes” are filled in with careful changes of the damper pedal.
- Always strive for a smooth “singing” (cantabile) tone and never just “play the notes.” Remember that chorales are vocal music and that your piano tone should emulate as much as possible the human voice. Fermata cadence points almost always call for a little slowing down or ritardando, not too little and not too much, but just the right amount in the right proportion. Advanced pianists are welcome to use the damper pedal in chorales, although less advanced students should use the pedal sparingly or not at all. Bach chorales are the perfect style in which to learn the fine points of proper piano pedaling, which Rubinstein referred to as “the soul of the piano.”