Lute Suite in G minor, BWV 995
Suite Piano solo
In brief

The piece projects a sober, contrapuntal mood, alternating reflective passages with discursive lines where each voice must keep its independence within a clear texture; the overall character is intimate and restrained rather than showy. Technically, expect to work on Complex fingering (Doigté complexe, 2.5/5): you will need frequent finger redistribution to maintain voice independence and execute subtle hand shifts without breaking legato; and Baroque style (Style baroque, 2.5/5) requires precise control of ornamentation and a detached articulation that preserves contrapuntal clarity. The suite belongs to Bach's body of instrumental dances and fits within his baroque suite repertoire, often performed today in adaptations for modern keyboard.

Listen to this work

These recordings are found automatically, and the machine still gets it wrong. One click from you — yes or no — fixes the catalogue for every musician who opens this page after you. Across our 10,000 works, your answer is our only real quality check.

An arrangement or transcription is fine: if you recognise the work, answer yes. Answer no if it is a different work, a different composer, or if the recording does not play.

  • Play — J. S. Bach - Suite in G minor, BWV 995 - Evangelina Mascardi, baroque lute · Edoardo Lambertenghi (the player loads on click)

    Open on Youtube ↗

    Is this the right work?

No account is required and no personal data is collected.

Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
73/100
Advanced
Likely range : 61–85/100
Confidence : 40% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 8

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.

Does this rating look right to you?

This rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.

Add a note (optional)

Your note is not published on the site: it is read in review.

Relative difficulty
94%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
90%
Era
92%
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Hand crossings
1
Fingering
Complex fingering
1
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Technique
Fast passages
1
Technique
Three-or-more-voice polyphony
1
Style
Baroque style
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.

See the whole progression