Polonaise in G minor, BWV Anh. 119

The polonaise was a Polish processional dance — slow triple metre, characteristically rhythmic — that crossed into the Baroque suite alongside the gavotte and the bourrée. The G-minor Polonaise in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach is one of three polonaises in the Notebook and the most often anthologised. Modern scholarship is uncertain about the attribution; the piece may be by C. P. E. Bach or another contemporary.

The piece tests cantabile two-part playing in a minor key. The right hand carries a long, expressive melodic line that needs careful shaping across the strain divisions; the left hand has a clear walking-bass line that must stay rhythmically alert without overpowering the melody. The polonaise's characteristic rhythm — a held first beat followed by faster note values — should be felt rather than mechanically counted.

Two pitfalls. First, students often play the right hand cleanly and let the left hand chug along — the piece needs a real two-voice texture and the left hand has to phrase too. Second, the cadential figures often get hurried; Baroque cadences need a small breath before resolution, otherwise the harmonic logic blurs.

The full Anna Magdalena Notebook is on IMSLP. Hearing the polonaise on harpsichord, alongside the better-known minuets, helps calibrate the right balance and pulse.