Violin Sonata no. 4 in C minor, BWV.1017
Baroque Sonata Violin and Piano
In brief

This C minor sonata feels intense and contrapuntal, alternating driven rhythmic passages with more restrained moments where the violin line reaches for expressivity. You will specifically work on “Phrasing (3.6/5)”, which here requires shaping long, interlocking phrases to make the dialogue between violin and keyboard clear, and “Vibrato (3.6/5)”, which must be kept discreet and controlled to color without obscuring the contrapuntal clarity; concretely that means adjusting attack and vibrato duration to note length and accompanying texture. The piece belongs to the Baroque period and sits among Bach’s sonatas for violin with continuo (here realized with piano), exemplifying his application of counterpoint to the duo format. I do not provide a reference recording here to avoid citing an interpreter unless I am completely certain it corresponds specifically to this sonata.

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Sheet music

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Formation

Violin and piano · 2 performers

Required forces
Violin 1 performers
Piano 1 performers
Playable parts
Violin Piano
MusicCoach difficulty
59/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 49–69/100
Confidence : 56% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 6 to 7

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Difficulty sources
Henle Verlag
5
50/100 normalised
MusicCoach expertise
66
66/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
49%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
55%
Era Baroque
44%
Genre
Movements and pieces of this work

One rarely plays the whole work. We do not yet have a level specific to each of these movements: they carry the opus's level, which does not say which one is the most approachable.

Estimated skills
Theory
Harmonic analysis
1
Theory
Knowledge of forms
1
Technique
Bow legato
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
Tone
Vibrato
1
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
2
Style
Baroque style
2
Technique
Position changes
1
Technique
Intonation
1
Technique
Legato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
Technique
Fast passages
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

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