On the Keyboard Partimento and its Pedagogical Significance

This piece, along with the Fantasia and Fughetta in D major, BWV 908, is a work mostly notated on a single staff with figured bass. It is believed to have been used as teaching material for composition and improvisation by his pupils, and is considered a work deeply connected to Bach, transcending debates about its authenticity. Regardless of its original composer, the figures are extremely precise and accurate. It is highly probable that Bach himself added the figures and even modified the original melody. The realized versions of these two pieces were provided by Czerny.

Incidentally, this type of composition is called a keyboard partimento and was frequently used as teaching material in 17th- and 18th-century Germany. Contemporary accounts attribute this piece to Gottfried Kirchhoff (1685-1746), a contemporary of Bach who became organist in Halle in 1714—a position for which Bach himself was brilliantly selected after a superb improvisation before the master Reinken (1623-1722), but which Bach declined. However, definitive proof is lacking.

Although this partimento appears to be monophonic, the musical form is already indicated within it. To complete the unwritten voices, one must thoroughly understand the key of each section and its function within the musical structure. The key can be easily grasped from the frequently established cadences.

The Fantasia consists of a thematic motive presenting descending or ascending scales spanning the range of both hands, and an interlude composed of continuously flowing turn figures. The turn figures foreshadow the theme of the subsequent Fughetta.

In the Fughetta, an initial exposition is provided as a model, but subsequent sections are left to the performer. The model is simple, containing no close positions, and the theme appears sequentially in the upper, middle, and lower voices. The next group of theme entries, appearing after an interlude, must be constructed to move from the lower voice to the upper voice. It is quite simple to play basic chords according to the figures, and one may also develop original counter-melodies by combining motives.

Considering the completion of the piece in this way, the turn figures and scales presented as material are useful for understanding key transitions and structure, as if the notes to be completed can be heard emerging from the score. This demonstrates that the partimento is exceptionally well-crafted for pedagogical purposes.