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Where to Start · September 11, 2026

Where to Start with Bach

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The problem with starting Bach is the sheer size of the pile. Over a thousand works survive, most with catalog numbers instead of names, and a lot of the famous ones are church music in German. Pick at random and you may land on something that feels like homework. But Bach clicks fast once you start in the right place, because underneath the numbers his music runs on two things anyone can hear: melodies that feel inevitable, and a steady pulse that pulls you forward like a good drummer. Here is an order that works.

Cello Suite no. 1

Start with one instrument and no accompaniment. The first Cello Suite opens with a Prelude you have almost certainly heard in a film or an ad: a single unbroken stream of notes that somehow sounds like a full band, because the one line keeps sketching the chords underneath itself. That trick, one voice implying many, is the heart of how Bach works, and here it comes in a piece about three minutes long. Listen for how the music breathes: it climbs, hangs on a tense note, and releases. Pablo Casals, who brought these suites back into concert life, made a famous recording of them in the 1930s that still holds up despite the old sound.

Brandenburg Concerto no. 3

Now add the band. The third Brandenburg Concerto is written for strings divided into three small teams of violins, violas, and cellos, and the fun is hearing them toss the same idea around like a ball. Nobody is the soloist for long; a phrase starts in one group, gets grabbed by another, and comes back changed. This is the piece for hearing Bach's rhythm, which drives ahead with the energy of dance music because that is largely what it is. If the Cello Suite showed you one voice acting like many, this shows you many voices acting like one.

Goldberg Variations

The Goldberg Variations are a quiet keyboard tune followed by thirty variations built on its bass line, with the tune returning at the end like a door closing. It is the best single place to hear Bach's range: some variations are playful and fast, some are puzzles where two or three melodies run at once in what musicians call counterpoint, and a few are slow and openly sad. You do not need to track the structure; just notice how much variety he pulls from one small foundation. The canonical recording is Glenn Gould's, and he made two: a fast, electric version from 1955 and a slower, more inward one from 1981. Either will do; hearing both is its own lesson in how performance changes a piece.

St. Matthew Passion

Save the biggest for last. The St. Matthew Passion tells the story of the crucifixion for choirs, soloists, and orchestra, and it runs close to three hours, so nobody expects you to sit through it cold. Sample it instead: the opening chorus, where two choirs call across each other over a slow, wave-like pulse, and the alto solo "Erbarme dich," a violin and a voice grieving together. You do not need German or a church background. The emotions carry the text, not the other way around.

Where to go next

From here the catalog opens in every direction. The other five Brandenburg Concertos continue the third's energy, the Well-tempered Clavier follows the Goldberg thread into a full tour of Bach's keyboard writing, the Orchestral Suite no. 3 holds the melody everyone knows as the Air on the G string, and the Mass in B minor is the summit once the Passion has you hooked. Log what you hear as you go; with Bach, the pile stops being intimidating the moment it becomes a trail.

Johann Sebastian Bach: complete works →

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