Violin Partita no. 3 in E major, BWV 1006: II. Loure
Baroque Partita Violin solo
In brief

The II. Loure has a noble, singing character, driven by dotted rhythms and long, breathing melodic lines that call for almost vocal phrasing. You will specifically face the high-position work: Positions hautes (4.3/5) require steady left-hand extensions and stable fingering to preserve tone and projection in the upper register, and Intonation (4.3/5) demands fine pitch adjustments to keep intervals pure across sustained phrases and after shifts. This is a Baroque solo violin piece from Bach’s set of Sonatas and Partitas, exemplifying his polyphonic writing for a single instrument.

MusicCoach difficulty
58/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 42–74/100
Confidence : 40% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 6

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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Relative difficulty
46%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
52%
Era Baroque
10%
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Intonation
1
Technique
High positions
1
Theory
Knowledge of forms
1
Technique
Position changes
1
Technique
Double stops
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
1
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Style
Baroque style
2
Style
Character and style
1
Technique
Détaché
1
Technique
Legato
1
Technique
Bow legato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
2
Technique
General technique
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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