J. S. Bach: First Book for Pianists Cover Image

J. S. Bach: First Book for Pianists: Piano Book & CD

$9.95 USD
$9.95 USD
Skip to product information
J. S. Bach: First Book for Pianists Cover Image
J. S. Bach: First Book for Pianists: Piano Book & CD

J. S. Bach: First Book for Pianists: Piano Book & CD

By Johann Sebastian Bach / ed. Willard A. Palmer / perf. Scott Price

Level: Intermediate

Item: 00-20854
$9.95
Shipped

One moment…

Description
As with all Alfred Masterwork Editions, the 13 selections of this book appear in their original, unsimplified forms. Menuets, marches, musettes and preludes comprise this carefully edited volume for early-intermediate pianists. Background material describes dance forms, ornamentation and dotted rhythms. Editorial indications for tempi, dynamics and articulations appear in gray print, and are based on scholarly research. It provides a valuable introduction to the keyboard works of this master composer.

Pianist Scott Price has beautifully recorded all the pieces in the book, included on Compact Disc. He is the chair of the Piano Department at the University of South Carolina and holds a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Oklahoma. He has given master classes and recitals throughout the United States and Southeast Asia. His recordings are featured in Alfred's Premier Piano Course.

J. S. Bach: First Book for Pianists: Piano Book & CD isn't in MakeMusic Cloud just yet...but it could be. Let us know you'd like to see it, and you'll help shape what comes next. In the meantime, start a free trial and dive into thousands of interactive titles your students can play along with today.

Request This Title

Tell us you want it.

Start Your Free Trial

Explore everything that's ready to play right now.
Sample Pages

Sample Audio
1 Menuet in D minor --:--
2 Prelude in C minor --:--

Menuet in D minor

0:00
0:00
Sample Video
No sample videos found.
Additional Details
Series: Alfred Masterwork CD Edition
Publisher: Alfred Music
Page Count: 24
ISBN10: 0-7390-2237-7
ISBN13: 978-0-7390-2237-5
UPC: 038081194677
SKU: 00-20854

More about this title

About the Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) stands at the foundation of Western keyboard literature. His systematic exploration of harmony, counterpoint, and keyboard technique established principles that shaped every major composer who followed. Bach's works for keyboard serve as a gateway to understanding Baroque music's intellectual rigor and emotional depth, making them essential to any serious pianist's education.

Bach composed keyboard works across his entire career, from early dance suites and preludes through monumental collections like the Well-Tempered Clavier and Goldberg Variations. His writing balances mathematical precision with genuine lyricism, teaching pianists how to voice multiple lines clearly while maintaining forward harmonic motion. These pieces remain the most direct path to understanding how the keyboard itself became a vehicle for musical thought.

Why we love this

This collection presents Bach's keyboard writing in its original forms, avoiding the simplified arrangements that can obscure his voice-leading and harmonic language. The scholarly editing respects the score while making performance decisions transparent through gray-print indications, teaching students how to approach interpretive questions in Baroque music. Scott Price's recorded performances on the included CD model stylistically informed playing without prescribing a single "correct" interpretation.

What to expect

These pieces embody the courtly refinement of the baroque dance suite alongside the intellectual clarity of Bach's keyboard writing. Menuets and musettes unfold with grace and proportion; marches stride with geometric precision; preludes bloom with harmonic surprise. Throughout runs a current of mathematical elegance that somehow never feels cold or abstract—the music breathes and dances despite its structural sophistication.

Who it's for

Early-intermediate pianists ready to engage with baroque counterpoint and harmonic language in their original complexity. Students who have developed solid sight-reading skills and can manage multiple independent voices will find these works accessible yet genuinely demanding.

How to get the most out of it

  • Attend closely to the editorial articulations in gray print, which clarify voice independence and phrasing within each hand. These are teaching tools as much as performance suggestions.
  • Shape ornaments with rhythmic precision rather than surface decoration. Bach's trills, turns, and mordents carry harmonic function, not merely ornamental flourish.
  • Maintain consistent harmonic momentum through the figured passages. Allow the bass line to anchor the harmony while upper voices move with clarity and independence.
  • Use the CD recording to absorb stylistic approaches to tempo, ornamentation, and textural balance, then develop your own interpretive choices based on what you discover about the piece's structure.

How to use it

Program individual selections from this collection on student recitals or studio performance days; each piece stands alone and requires only modest rehearsal time. A menuet or march works as a graceful concert opener or closer, and the variety of dance forms allows you to feature students with different technical strengths on the same program.

Skills your students will build

  • Independence of hands in contrapuntal texture
  • Recognition and performance of baroque ornaments (trills, turns, mordents)
  • Understanding of Baroque dance forms and their characteristic rhythmic profiles
  • Clarity in voicing multiple melodic lines within a single hand
  • Interpretation of editorial indications and engagement with scholarly performance practice
  • Harmonic analysis and figured bass recognition
  • Consistent pulse and forward harmonic momentum in longer phrases

You May Also Like