The third work of Clavier-Übung Part I, the Partita No. 3 in A minor, goes back to seven movements after the shorter Partita No. 2.

Following the pattern of starting each Partita with a differently titled movement, BWV 827 opens with a Fantasia, followed by the three canonical dances – Allemande, Corrente and Sarabande. The added “galanteries”, which are also different in each work of the set, are a Burlesca and a Scherzo, before closing with the mandatory Gigue.

The opening Fantasia is a single-section movement in 3/8, for two voices, which is surprisingly regular and imitative given its title. The elegant Allemande brings in a busier texture, with two lines in dialog over a bass featuring quick runs of 32nd notes, punctuated by written-in ornaments and dotted rhythms. The Corrente, going back to two-line writing, passes full bars of dotted-eighth-sixteenth cells back and forth between the voices as a source of energy to propel the piece forward. The Sarabande uses triplets, first introduced to achieve the characteristic displacement of the accent into the second beat of the bar, but then adopted as an ongoing element of the dance make-up.

There is an earlier version of this Partita in the Clavier-Büchlein for Anna Magdalena Bach of 1725, with the Burlesca labeled Menuet, and no Scherzo. The change of title for the Menuet was probably intended to highlight the playfulness of its counterpoint and quirky rhythms – almost a caricature of a typical Menuet. The energetic Scherzo, with its cells of sixteenth notes in scales and arpeggios, is a lighthearted bridge to the extensive Gigue that closes the piece.

In his 2020 recording, Mahan Esfahani plays a harpsichord built by Jukka Ollikka in Prague in 2018. It is based on instruments by Michael Mietke with some modifications. Check out also the Youtube video of Menno van Delft playing the piece on a clavichord, for a very different overall character and sonority.