The realisation playback at 60 dotted quarter note or crotchet beats to the minute. A plain score is appended to the edited music score. Whilst the suggestions in the edited music score are prescriptive it is intended that keyboard players will make use of the plain score once the movement has been studied. Understand that a good performance comes from good preparation. Music editing is a continuous process and keyboard players should be prepared to review the suggestions. There are a number of techniques that are encouraged to be used in the editing suggestions namely changing a finger on a note and sliding a finger from one note, usually a black note, to a succeeding white note. All editing suggestions are to encourage legato playing. In this version ornaments have been omitted. Playing the C minor scale in all its forms natural, harmonic and melodic would be excellent preparation for playing this sinfonia. Find scales in the free scores drop down menu on the website home page. The voice leading in this sinfonia is not altogether straightforward and players will need to pay attention to the accidentals in the score possibly adding reminders if required. Conflicting accidentals often appear in different voices in the same bar. A sinfonia that features arpeggios and scale runs with the rhythmic shapes in the lines having a strong repetitive element. The note values given in Bach’s Sinfonias often give an indication of intended articulations that are intended. Players should be aiming for a singing legato in their playing. The movement needs to be played, in the first instance, with an awareness of the patterns of 3 in the 12/8 time signature (4x3 to the bar). It is important to keep to the written note durations. An additional challenge which often arises when playing the sinfonias on a keyboard instrument is deciding how the middle part is shared between the hands. Keyboard players may well wish to review the suggestions. Rests have been indicated in the voices as they are in the keyboard version of the works Some of the rhythmic notation particularly with regards to the use of rests is ambiguous. Logic and rules do not universally apply. What tends to be in place is what is good for the eye. There are also some ambiguities in the voicing in the score that reference that the sinfonias were composed for an instrument with more than one keyboard – the harpsichord. The 3 part Sinfonias and 2 part Inventions are excellent movement for developing listening skills and good intonation in an ensemble playing context. The Sinfonias are works conceived for three voices and feature compositional processes very much associated with Bach’s contrapuntal writing namely: repetition, inversion, imitation, augmentation, diminution. In these works the closely related keys of the dominant, sub- dominant, relative minor are explored. Thgis movement ends with a Picardy third – a major chord rather than the one indicated by the key signature. The movement should not be played too quickly. The music editor’s advice is that players need to be clear in their intention as far as the articulation of the lines and the dynamics. Whilst a movement that needs to be played with control there also needs to be a lightness in the playing approach. PlentyMusic arrangements provides music practice opportunities & experiences to instrumentalists of playing along with other instruments preparing the way for quality ensemble playing.
