Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund', BWV.621
Baroque Piano solo ~2 min
In brief

This keyboard chorale feels hushed and solemn, with the melody quietly singing over a steady harmonic accompaniment, producing a meditative slowness rather than overtly romantic expression. You will be mainly challenged by the Lecture clé de fa (3.1/5), which here means reading and organizing the bass line into the left hand so the thumb and fingers articulate the low register clearly without obscuring the right hand, and by Ornements baroque (3.1/5): you must execute very short mordents and grace figures precisely and consistently, placing them correctly in the rhythm which requires steady finger control and deliberate fingering. The piece belongs to the Baroque period and is part of Bach's chorale repertoire for keyboard, intended for liturgical or devotional use rather than virtuosic display.

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Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
46/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 34–58/100
Confidence : 35% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 5

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
37%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
27%
Era Baroque
Genre
Estimated skills
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
1
Style
Baroque style
1
Technique
Legato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
What to play next?

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