J.C.F.Bach was the fourth and youngest composing son of J.S.Bach. Many songs in different languages have been based on this familiar French song know Show More...
J.C.F.Bach was the fourth and youngest composing son of J.S.Bach. Many songs in different languages have been based on this familiar French song known as "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" including "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep." These set of variations provide an excellent summary of keyboard technique available and used during the late baroque/ early classical period. The score has been prepared for performance on a modern piano. The pianist may want to add some sustaining pedal particularly in Variations 4, 8, 9 and 10 although pedal markings are not indicated in the score. The changing meters does add a complication as to how the bars of music are counted. Understand that each variation has its own tempo. When playing variations don’t think that all variations need to be played at the same tempo. The ornament used in this set of variations is an upper mordent comprising the note, the note above and then the note itself again. Most of the musical content is classical in spirit and the phrase structure is understandably symmetrical which makes it a good piece to memorise. The score also has some suggested fingering. The music editor suggests that when performing the variations it would good idea to choose a selection of the variations to play. Suggested performances patterns could be: Option 1 Theme + Var. 1 + Var. 2 + Var. 3 + Var. 4 + Var. 5 + Var. 9 and for Option 2 Theme + Var. 7 + Var. 8 + Var. 9 + Var. 10 + Var. 11 + Var. 12. Close
