Air on the G String BWV1068

One of Bach’s Most Beloved Works

Air on the G String is one of the most familiar and widely loved works by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Its long, graceful melody and gently flowing harmony have made it familiar far beyond the concert hall. Today, the piece is heard in countless arrangements for orchestra, piano, violin, guitar, and many other instruments, and it has become one of the best-known works not only by Bach but from the entire Baroque repertoire.

The original music is the second movement, simply titled “Air,” from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, generally dated to around 1730.

The complete suite calls for trumpets, timpani, oboes, strings, and basso continuo. In the Air, however, Bach sets aside the brilliant wind and percussion instruments and uses only strings and continuo, creating a much more intimate and tranquil atmosphere than the surrounding movements.

Why Is It Called “Air on the G String”?

Despite the name by which it is universally known today, Bach never called the piece Air on the G String.

In Bach’s score, the movement is simply titled Air. The familiar reference to the G string appeared much later, in 1871, through an arrangement by the German violinist August Wilhelmj.

Wilhelmj transposed Bach’s original music from D major to C major and moved the principal melody into a lower register. This allowed the solo violinist to perform the entire melody on the violin’s lowest string — the G string.

The arrangement became famous for this distinctive effect, and the description Air on the G String gradually became attached not only to Wilhelmj’s version but also to Bach’s original movement.

The name by which the piece is now known around the world is therefore the result of a nineteenth-century arrangement, rather than a title given by Bach himself.

More Than Just a Beautiful Melody

The famous first-violin melody naturally attracts most of the listener’s attention, but much of the beauty of the Air lies beneath and around that melody.

The second violin, viola, and bass parts continue to move independently, sometimes supporting the principal melody and sometimes answering it with their own melodic lines.

These voices frequently interact through suspensions and moments of dissonance that resolve into consonance, giving the music much of its expressive depth. The bass also remains in almost continuous motion, so despite the very slow and peaceful character of the piece, the music never truly becomes static.

The result is a texture in which melody, countermelody, and bass all seem to sing at the same time — a characteristic feature of Bach’s writing and an important part of the beauty of this piece.

About This Classical Guitar Arrangement

This classical guitar arrangement follows the structure and musical progression of Bach’s original as closely as practical for a single guitar.

The Air is written in two main sections. In the original score, the first section is repeated; in this arrangement, that repeat has been omitted. Apart from this repeat, however, the piece is not shortened or excerpted.

The result therefore follows the same complete sequence as a straightforward performance of the original without taking the written repeat.

Where possible, the arrangement also preserves not only the principal melody but the important countermelodies and bass movement, allowing the dialogue between the different voices of Bach’s original to be heard within a solo classical-guitar texture.