Bach, Minuet in G, Anna Magdalena Notebook (Petzold)

FAQ

Bach, Minuet in G (major/minor), with scrolling scores

Q: Is there free sheet music for this piece?
A: Yes, here:
http://www.musanim.com/pdf/bwva114_MinuetInG.pdf

Q: Is this from the Anna Magdalena Notebook?
A: Yes.

Q: Who is playing?
A: Me (Stephen Malinowski, aka smalin on YouTube)

Q: There are a lot of mistakes in the video ...
A: Yes, I know. When I decided to do this piece, I thought "no problem, it's easy," but I was completely wrong. I practiced it daily for a couple of weeks, and never got to the point where I felt like it was close to what I wanted. When I felt like I was as ready as I was going to get and started recording, I did take after take in which major things went wrong. After taking a break, I did this performance, and although there were lots of things I'd change, there weren't any really awful mistakes, and I felt like I'd spent enough time on it. What I didn't notice were how many mistakes there were in the score that's visible in the video. Hopefully, I've fixed those in the PDF you can download.

Q: What's the BWV number for this piece?
A: I believe the two minuets were numbers 114 and 115 in the BWV Anhang.

Q: I've heard that this piece isn't really by Bach; is that true?
A: Probably; here's the Wikipedia article about it:
http://tinyurl.com/bachminueting

Q: What do the colors in the bar-graph score mean?
A: The colors indicate the "pitch class" of the notes; that is, every A is a certain color (blue), every B is a certain color (olive green), etc. The piece is in the key of G, so there's lots of blue. The choice of colors is based on the "circle of fifths," which you can read about here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths
This method of coloring notes is described more here:
http://www.musanim.com/mam/pfifth.htm
Because this form of coloring reflects tonality, you can see the change from G major to G minor.

Q: Is there a way I could make the bar-graph scores myself?
A: The Music Animation Machine MIDI file player will generate this display; you can get the (Windows) software here:
http://www.musanim.com/player/
There are lots of places on the web where you can get MIDI files; I usually go to the Classical Archives site first:
http://www.classicalarchives.com/

Q: Could you please do a MAM video of _________?
A: First, check my "to do" list:
http://www.musanim.com/all/MAMToDoList.html ...
If the piece isn't listed, read the "Could you please do a MAM video of _________?" item on my main FAQ:
http://www.musanim.com/mam/mamfaq.html#copyright ...
and if you think I'd consider doing it, email me (stephen at musanim dot com).
.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• simple
• piano
• baroque
• menuet
• anna
• magdalena

[Jasen1134]

do you have to be ambidextrous to play piano or do you manually teach yourself?

[smalin]

@Jasen1134 No, just coordinated.

[dcowboys107]

At time :58 why is there a quarter rest when something is played? without it it's still 3/4 so doesn't seem very necessary? It may just be a convention idk but an explanation would be nice.

[smalin]

@dcowboys107 The piece alternates between one, two and three voices in the left hand. At that point there are two, and the rest shows that the upper voice doesn't play on the downbeat.

[nyo267n]

Nicely played! It's hard to find this Petzold minuet really well performed here on YouTube. It sounds as if you are performing it on an acoustic piano, no? I always knew how to play the part in major, but thanks to your pdf I'm just about to start practicing the part in minor. Did you find the minor and major parts together as one piece? I always thought of them as two separate variations. However, now that I hear them together it seems clear that they should be performed together.

[smalin]

@nyo267n In the edition of the Anna Magdalena Notebook I have (a very cute volume by Friedrich Hofmeister published in 1960 by Peters), they are published side by side; that plus the key relationship would be enough to suggest that they be played (as was the convention) as a pair, but beyond that, there are dozens of points of similarity between the two (the more you look, the more you'll find) --- which makes it clear that they were written to go together.

[CrossbowManD]

@Tragedy116 I believe it depends on the scale you are in but i am not sure myself

[Tragedy116]

Is the mordent supposed to trill upwards if it doesn't have a dash through it?

[Kraviotho]

well done, nostalgic :'D

[fissionesque]

Nice. I like your trills and mordents.

[glokeys]

I too believe that color and sound should be combined...hence my glowing pianos

[Lozano9123x]

does any1 have a MIDI for this?