Greetings All,

I'm new here, and I'm entering a Junior Bach competition; I wanted to know what all of you think about the Gigue from Bach's 3rd English Suite in G Minor. The competition goes from local to regional to state, and I want to at least make it to regional. My teacher says it's REALLY competitive.


Awaiting Your Input Eagerly,
a PianoFaerie

Hi, I'm new here too.

I've done the Gigues from the 2nd and 4th English Suites in exams. This G minor one sounds a bit trickier than either of those, though. My problem is that with notes in groups of three I always find it difficult not to speed up, especially when I'm nervous. All these Gigues are really two-part inventions - if you get the balance between the hands right they sound great, so intricate. I'm sure a good performance of the G minor gigue would go down well.

On the subject of Bach suites generally, two movements that work really well as stand-alone pieces are the opening movements of the C minor and E minor partitas. They both contain a lot of variety and range. The C minor is in three sections - a slow, stately opening, more flowing middle and allegro finish. The E minor begins and ends with a dramatic toccata section and has a big, marvellous fugue in the middle. It's pretty difficult though.

Anyway, best of luck with whatever you play.

Thanks, yok! I'll look at those pieces you mentioned.

a PianoFaerie