French Suite no. 3 in B minor, BWV.814
Baroque Suite Piano solo ~13 min
In brief

This French Suite in B minor combines courtly dance elegance with a darker contrapuntal seriousness, alternating sprightly movements and more introspective sections where the polyphony stands out. You will specifically face the issue of Baroque Ornaments (4.1/5): you must execute precise, articulated agréments with controlled timing and attack to keep the voices clear, and Bass clef reading (3.1/5) requires fluent left-hand reading in the F clef, with anticipatory fingerings and hand placement to preserve contrapuntal independence. The piece belongs to the Baroque period and, along with the other French Suites, represents Bach's exploration of stylized dances and keyboard polyphony. I do not provide a reference interpretation here because I prefer not to name a recording unless I am certain of its direct association with this exact work.

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  • Play — András Schiff - Bach. French Suite No.3 in B minor BWV814 · o_o (the player loads on click)

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  • Play — French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814 (Arr. for 2 Guitars): IV. Anglaise · Johann Sebastian Bach, Danijel Cerovic, Goran Krivokapić (the player loads on click)

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Sheet music

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MusicCoach difficulty
54/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 46–63/100
Confidence : 55% · fair confidence
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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Difficulty sources
Henle Verlag
5
50/100 normalised · 2 obs.
Relative difficulty
59%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
48%
Era Baroque
38%
Genre
Estimated skills
Theory
Knowledge of forms
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
1
Style
Baroque style
1
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
Technique
Two-voice polyphony
1
What to play next?

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